In September and October 2004, the southeastern seaboard was hit with record amounts of rainfall as hurricane after hurricane pounded thousands of miles of land. As the ground became saturated with water, small streams began to rise. Those streams fed into larger ones which in turn fed larger streams and rivers. Water levels all over the eastern states began to rise as the numerous lakes swelled to record proportions. With another hurricane on its way and the rivers swelling towards flood stage, citizens everywhere began to fear the worst. During the night of September 7, the Catawba River, which flows through Morganton, NC, broke it banks and continued rising. Early in the morning of September 8, the water was nearly 20 feet above flood stage.

At 1020 feet, a beautiful 3600 foot long grass strip lay in the path of the rising flood waters. When dawn broke on the morning of September 8, local piots, having heard about the flooding that night, came over to the airport. Many found their airplanes already under water. Two of the hangers were already under nearly four feet of water already and the water was still rising. Frantic calls were made to the pilots whos airplanes had not yet been submerged in an effort to move them to higher ground. Many airplanes were moved but a few remained locked in their hangers. All of the airplanes in the lowest two hangers were too deep in water to be moved. Those airplanes, along with several others whos hanger doors could not be un-locked, totaled 13. Unfortunatly, there was a Fairchild 24 and a PT-26 among those aircraft submerged. The 1940 Fairchild 24W will be the topic of this story.

When the water receeded, we were able to open the hanger doors and asses the damage. The first thing you noticed as the doors were opened was a half-inch of oil-slick sludge left behind by the flood and the stench of sewage. Then you noticed the airplanes. The white paint on the Fairchild 24 was turned brown with silt. As we walked around the airplane assesing the damage, we noticed that the water line on the fuselage was not parallel to the ground, indicating that the tail of the airplane floated in the water. When the tail floated, it dunked all seven cylinders into the water in addition to all of the instruments except, ironically, the wet magnetic compass. As we continued to look around the aircraft, we realized that when the tail floated a large air compressor fell underneath the elevator. When the water receeded, the fabric elevator fell on a sharp corner of the air compressor. Remarkably, it fell on the only aluminum inspection cover on that side of the elevator. Another good thing that came from the tail floating was the fact that it kept the complex wood structure on the top of the empenage out of the water. When reflecting upon the situation, we realized that the situation could have been much worse. We only needed to look as far as Florida to realize the damage Hurricane Francis caused on the aviation community. We had our hopes up for the next task to answer the question: what damage did the water do to the interior of the airplane?