Text 18669, 94 rader
Skriven 2011-05-11 18:42:46 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 18640 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: OBL
===========
Replying to a message of Ward Dossche to Bob Ackley:

 WD> Bob,

 BA>> Back when SAC had its B-52 bombers on alert, ...

 WD> You know something about B52's?

A little bit.  I worked in SAC headquarters from 1972 to 1983.

 WD> I'm looking into the alleged overnight crash of a B52 in Flathead
 WD> Lake, Montana, probably a few decades ago.

No.  But I do know that the north central US was and may still be criss-crossed
with
SAC's "oil-burner" routes.  They practiced very low level flight using an
aircraft that
was designed as a high level bomber.  FWIW there's a B=52H mounted at one of
the
gates to Offutt AFB = as if it was flying, it's about  thirty feet above the
ground.
There's a KC-135 parked just behind it.  There's a B-17 parked at another gate
to
the base.

 WD> It's a deep lake and probably the aircraft was never recovered.

 WD> Any idea what kind of source would have information on that crash?
 WD> If and when it happened?

Local newspapers should have something - although probably not much - on it.
SAC tries to clamp a lid on any such incidents.  Two B=57 Canberras (AF Reserve
birds) crashed on approach to Offutt and the base took possession of the
cornfield
until 'their investigation was completed.'  All 4 aircrew got out of those.

Many years ago a B=52 pilot was jerking around in the pattern at Fairchild AFB
(Spokane, WA) and pranged his airplane in - no survivors. I saw a picture of it
taken just before impact; low level, steep bank and headed down, altitude less
than
500 feet when the picture was taken.

I was at Kadena when a B-52 - with a full bomb load - caught fire on takeoff
and blew up on the east end of the base runway (the crew got out).  That bang -
and the secondaries from bombs that were thrown off the wings - woke everybody
up for miles around.  Fortunately it occurred at 0300 instead of 1500 and there
was
no traffic on the public road that's about fifty feet from where the aircraft
was sitting
when it blew.  The engine pods were the only pieces left that were big enough
to pick
up, the rest of the airplane was confetti.  Pilot and copilot were singed a bit
but nobody
was really hurt.

SAC guarded its reputation very jealously.  During the Linebacker mjissions
over North
Vietnam any aircraft that managed to get out of North Vietnam's airspace was
not reported
as a battle casualty even if it subsequently crashed due to battle damage.  A
number of
B-52s that actually recovered at SAC bases but were too badly damaged to repair
were 
not listed as battle casualties; and one badly damaged bird that crashed on
approach was written off as 'pilot error.'  SAC wouldn't admit, even to itself,
that a third rate country
like North Vietnam could do any damage to them at all.  FWIW, the *one* time
SAC
operations took advice from SAC intelligence into their mission planning there
were no
casualties - and SAC went right back to the same tactics they used over
Schweinfurt in
1944 and started losing airplanes and aircrews again.  I was working with SAC
intel at
the time.

Years ago I saw a picture of a C-133 lying on its back in the East China Sea
off
the west end of the runway at Kadena.  Ran across the fellow that was
loadmaster of
that aircrarft and he explained what had happened.  The pilot had bought a
sports car
and was bootlegging it back to the states in his plane.  He *ordered* the
loadmaster
to put his relatively light car in front of the manifested cargo, which made
the airplane
very tail heavy as soon as it got off the ground, and it stalled and went over
backwards.
The loadmaster told him that the balance would be wrong and the pilot said he
didn't
care he'd take care of it.  Obviously there was too much of an imbalance...

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)