Dealing With Some Cold-Blooded Cargo

Wild PR stunt included crash landing of B-25 carrying snakes and alligators.

Martha Lunken

Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Firefighters prepare to unload these four trussed alligators from the B-25 bomber that crash-landed at Lunken Airport in 1963. [Credit: Fred Straub/Cincinnati Inquirer]

Key Takeaways:

In 1963, a B-25 carrying over 2,000 reptiles and four alligators crash-landed without landing gear at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, an event witnessed by the author.
The incident was a deliberate publicity stunt orchestrated by Arthur Jones, owner of the "Wild Cargo" show, who hired the pilot to crash the plane to generate media attention and boost ticket sales for his Cincinnati exhibition.
The staged crash successfully sold out the show for 10 days, and the B-25, after being abandoned and sold for $500, was remarkably restored and returned to flying status in 2005.

See a mistake? Contact us.

At lunch several weeks ago, I told a story of a B-25 that crash-landed at Lunken Airport in the 1960s with a cargo of wild reptiles, snakes and alligators. Some of these guys were old hands at Lunken, but they simply didn’t believe me.

It was way back when the original control tower was still in the main terminal building, manned by a bunch of really great FAA controllers, and the tower chief was a good friend, Wes Schaeffer.