Base incidents ! (Read 3,162 times)

Wow! Glad everything turned out ok.

Nothing like that ever happened at the Grif that I know of, but we (the mock-up troops) watched the fire dept try to put out a fire on SAC hill one afternoon. Turned out the vapors coming off of an underground tank had ignited and they couldn't get the lid to the tank cooled off enough to keep it from reigniting the vapors for quite some time.

Had we known the situation (underground fuel tank) we'd have left for the night!

Hamilton AFB, Ca - 1969 to 1971

Night Flying - surges - Sq Commander and DCM attempted a side by side landing in the dark-thirty hours. One "flared" too early, hitting short,with NO wheels on the ground, engaging the near barrier and the other pilot got spooked by his "Wing guy" and took the far barrier. The double engagment was the talk of the line for just a little while, then it was hushed up.
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Normal flying day
One young pilot was having trouble solo-ing the SIX. After many hours of extra flights he finally got his certification. The very next flight he had to declare an emergency, due to his canopy getting ripped off by a 600+ knot slip-stream, taking the vertical stab off at the red-white-blue bolt level on the plane. To his credit, he did get it back on the ground safely. However, he walked around following a senior pilot for 6 months before he could solo again. He did learn how to properly lock down the canopy after that one flight.
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Week-end Duty-Saturday
One week-end on stand-by the line was closing down to go home. The line of 20 Darts all had their weapons bay racks and doors extended and open. The line expeditor had the duty and was trying to get his troops home early. We engine guys were cleaning up the office and filling out paper work. The line MSgt and his helper was walking down the row of Darts and were quick closing the racks and doors. In perfect rythems the yell of "rack", thud - "doors" - slam could be heard one after the other. In the middle somewhere the command "rack" - thud, "doors" - psssst "crack" / "snap" / "bang" was heard. On first look one of the safety locks was still installed and the SIX had sheared the door hinges when the 3000 lbs of pressure "quick" closed or tried to close. Snapped both doors .
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Engine Change in the Hangar
We were always too busy to do the rail modifcation on the engine change rails and the engine trailers. Sometimes the rails would pull off the front rail mount bracket and when we would push the engine back the rails would bend down under the engine's weight and it would not roll anywhere. Once this had happened and the supervisor got the big A-7 hoist and hooked up to the left front mount and took the weight off the rail and then shoved the rail back into rail mount. Then we pulled the egine out with no problems.

A later engine change just the next week. Same thing happened. Different supervisor. He was told to use the A-7 hoist like the previous guy had done. OH NO, he had his own ideas, a 12 ton house jack. He drove home, got his jack, came back and told the crew to go take a break. He would be responsible for the "fix". YES, he was found responsible for breaking out the belly spar in the engine bay when he started jacking up the engine and the jack was pushed down through the spar and bay. Took a year to get that aircraft back O/R.

Too bad I didn't shop in the commissary until the 80's. Just my luck! LOL

1980 - RAF Bentwaters

Rendelsham Forrest UFO incident - I was running the night shift of the Jet Engine Intermediate Maintenance Shop (JEIM), when a flightline guy came for a K-balled part for his jet. He told us that the Base Commander , Col. Hault had a UFO tree'd over in Rendelsham Forrest.

We all laughed and went about our business of fixing engines. The next day there was minimal talk about the incident. Life around the base returned to the everyday job of flying "low and slow" blowing up Russian Tanks.

15 years later in retirement mode, watching cable TV, A show about UFO incidents is on. The longest segment was about the 1980 incident at Rendlesham Forrest. Col. Hault gave a full accounting of the UFO landed on the ground, the investigation of the burn marks left after the UFO left the area. Just outside the fences of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, homes to the largest Tactical outfit in the world at that time.

We surely are not alone!!!!

Littlerock...There was a serious problem with the theft of the 8 day clocks out of the Herks. It turned worse when they also started to smash instruments on the flight deck.

The next step was to put lead weights wrapped in white cloth in the intakes. Fortunately these were found by the people they would slide into the intakes for inspections.

One time my wife's aircraft came back with a tail ramp that was off center and packed with dirt. Scott sent down a T-39 with an inspection team to do the investigation. The T-39 declared an IFE and the Fire Dept. foamed the paved runway. The aircraft landed on the grass between the foam and the dirt strip. MAC HQ had to send another team for the T-39 which spen some time on jacks in one of the smaller hangers.

Whilst at Sioux City Air Base (SCAB), Iowa in the 1950s, we had a major who was a cargo type pilot. He was a bit of a martinet and made every crew chief's life miserable. When he was still a captain he checked out in the C82 and then the C119. He was supposed to be a maintenance officer, but seldom got out on the line. He drove a Packard Patrician and parked it where ever he wanted to. Usually next to the hanger on the grass. About the time he made major he was transferred to the 14th FIS, which had F86D aircraft. He began flying the T-Birds to get prepared to fly the F86. No problems with the T-Bird. He also began "flying" the F86 simulator as prep for his F86 flying. Well, things were not going badly and he finally began flying the Dog Saber and getting used to it and was going to go on a cross-country hop. That's when the situation changed. He got to the end of the taxiway at the north end of the main runway, and began the pre takeoff check list. He closed the canopy and the next thing that happened was reported by the pilot who had mobile tower duty that day. The mobile tower was on the grass near where the F86 was running. He was watching the 86 and saw the drop tanks hit the ground and one of them caught fire. He radioed the pilot to get out of there as there was fire under a wing. O.K. Not a problem, just let off the brakes and a bit of throttle and your out of danger. Right? Nope. The major blew the canopy, closed the throttle and bailed out of the cockpit. As I recall he either broke an ankle or a bad sprain. He was on crutches for a while. Meanwhile the pilot in the mobile tower calls for a fire truck and grabs a fire extinguisher and puts out the fire. The major, as far as I know, never lived down the incident and never was sure what he did to punch the tanks. He thought he was distracted by something and hit the wrong switch because of his newness to the plane. Needless to say, the crew chief was not a happy camper, nor was the CO. Oh, yes. The major's first name was Amin and from that day hence he was always refereed to as Flamin' Amin.
The last time I saw him was when I was in the 14th FIS at SCAB. Yep had two F86D/L squadrons. He was at SCAB on an inspection tour from Richards-Gebauer AFB, MO (Kansas City). When he left SCAB he went to RG as part of the 29th Air Division IG team. The Peter Principle at work.

As a side note, the CO of the 14th was Lt.Col. William Shomo. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in WW2 for shooting down 7 Japanese planes on one mission. His wingman got two on the same flight. One of the finest commanders I ever had.
:us_flag

For my 100th post, I want to tell you another SCAB incident.

During my years at Sioux City Air Base, Iowa (SCAB), there were lots of birds lost to various incidents.
The first one while I was at SCAB was a C82. I was in the 79th Air Base Squadron, which had a C47 and a T6D. I was assistant crew chief on the T6 and one of the assistant flight mechanics on the Gooney Bird. We got C82's in early 1953 and became a cargo outfit, sort of. One of our Packets headed to Yuma with a J47 engine for one of the 87Th FIS F86D's that had need for another engine. The plane was taking a crew to change the engine and some of our troops to assist. They landed at Kirtland to refuel and then took off for Yuma. On climb out one of the engines quit and a Packet doesn't fly too well with one fan turning when it is climbing to go over the mountains around Albuquerque. The pilot, Capt. Erickson our maintenance officer, told the flight mechanic to jettison the clamshell doors and push the J47 out. The bird was still having troubles and he told the rest to get out. The flight mech stood by the big hole in the back and waited until everyone in the cargo area was out and looked to see if the pilots were headed out. The co-pilot came down the ladder and they went out the back just after the bird cleared a ridge. A few seconds earlier and they would have hit the ridge before their chutes opened. After they got out the bird went below another ridge and they heard an explosion. They all got together and waited for rescue crews from Kirtland to fetch them. When they found the Packet, Capt. Ericson's body was in the cargo compartment. The accident report said the autopilot was on, and the plane seemed to have lost the second engine and Capt. Erickson wasn't able to get out before it hit. It was a sad day for our squadron and the base. But, everyone was happy that 12 got out with no injuries. It wasn't too long and we got C119 Flying Boxcars. The C82 had R2800 engines and was just a bit underpowered and really under if one quit on takeoff with a load in the hold. The C119's we got at first had R 4360's and later got some with R3350 Compound engines.
The C82 we lost at SCAB was the first of many. During the years we had F86D/L Saber Dogs we lost a bunch. But those are stories for another day.

The one I remember was when a SAC B52 blew up on the SAC area line November 14 1976 If I recall the date right at Minot.Saw what was left wasnt pretty either.As far as I know the Buf was empty on fuel.and Maint. was working on it power on but the Boost pump fuses never got pulled.The aircraft got powered off for a refuel after they got there work done the boost pumps had been running for some reason and got cherry hot .When they fueled up ...THAT WAS IT boom ! It rocked the whole base at about 2 A.M.One guy was under a wing and another by the tail both got killed the third was in the cockpit got out some how out the window.Drove a tug down to the trim pad by that area all that was left were the tail ,engine nacelles,and nose.Never forget how hot the fire must have been to turn the metal on the skin to a liquid, wierd cooled like a frooze waterfall.I never forgot those guys a really humble reflection I sometimes think of.......... In the Line of duty! thats the story I got not possitive about the specific detail just what the grapevine told me.