Farichild B-52 Crash, 24 Jun 94 (Was: Re: [Milsurplus] OT: B-52 Video)

[D C *Mac* Macdonald]

Okay, gang.  Here's a source for what happened at
Fairchild AFB.  It is in a book, "Darker Shades of Blue:
A Case Study of Failed Leadership" written by former
Air Force Major Anthony T Kern.  The book is copyright
1995 and can be found at Amazon and other usual
sites.  I have some excerpts which I can email to anyone
who wishes.  I hope that won't get me in trouble with
copyright legal eagles.  Do a Google search on Anthony
Kern and you can find other books/studies he wrote.

My son is an Air Force helicopter pilot and at the time
was flying USAF Hueys for the Aircrew Survival School
at Fairchild.  On the day of the crash, he was doing practice
landings and takeoffs at training sites within the confines
of the base.  He was advised by radio to leave the landing
site where he was and move to a training area several
miles away due to local air traffic.

Between five and ten minutes after his departure, the Buff
crashed right onto the spot he had just vacated.

There is another weird happening on the base just four
days prior where a gunman entered the base hospital
and killed several Air Force members before he was shot
and killed by an SP officer.  A flight surgeon there was the
ex-husband of a ham here in the OKC area who was a
member of my local ham club!  My son knew the flight
surgeon and the YL lived only a couple of miles from me.

Anyway, the file is an htm document with several
separate files to run it.  I'm not absolutely certain that
I can even forward it successfully.  I can send the contents
of the operating folder which has the folder name of
"Fairchild B-52 Crash_Files" which will need to be installed in
the same folder where the file "Fairchild B-52 Crash.htm"
is saved.  The total size will probably be 120 to 150 kb.

Let me know.

73 - Mac, K2GKK/5
Captain, USAF (retired)
B-52F EWO, Crew E-55
9th BS, 7th BW (H)



----Original Message Follows----
From: "Richard Arland, W3OSS" <richard.arland at verizon.net>
To: <whitaker at ieee.org>, <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] OT: B-52 Video
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:31:15 -0500

Hi Clete:

OK, this is going to be from memory and we all know how that works. The 
article I remember reading was from Air & Space Weekly (IIRC) and was about 
8-10 years ago. The pilot was one of those guys that every wing commander 
loves to have when the IG shows up 'cuz they will take anything off with 
wings on it!! Even the Hanger Queens. This guy was an O-4 (Lt Col) IIRC, and 
he was the "star" of a video shot out west when they wanted to have a BUFF 
come in low and slow toward a camera man on a ridge. This dude brought that 
BUFF in and, from what the article said, it blew the photographer and his 
camera over he was THAT low. He was one of those pilots that other pilots 
didn't like flying with apparently due to his disregard for safety issues. 
The Vice Wing Commander at Fairchild was up for his check ride with this guy 
when he tried rolling the BUFF. Also in the cockpit was the head of Stan 
Eval for the wing. If you ever saw the video he started his roll and the 
BUFF just fell out of the sky...apparently he didn't have enough airspeed to 
complete the maneuver. As I remember the article, the Stan Eval chief had 
restricted this guys piloting due to "problems". I also remember something 
about practicing for an air show at Fairchild, which was soon to be closed. 
Don't know if that was true or not. It would have made one heck of a 
show-stopper!

That is about all I recall from the article. I have it here somewhere in all 
my junk from my old job. If I find it in the near future I will photocopy it 
for anyone who wants to read it. Again, this is from memory, so there may be 
some glaring errors.

Hank, KN6DK/5, e-mailed me telling me that Tex Johnson was the Boeing chief 
test pilot that rolled that 707....not once but several times. And Hank, 
"No" Tex was definitely not "just a BUFF Driver". Thanks for the info, that 
is what I love about this group.

For Captain Mac: Sorry about that, chief...You had indicated several times 
that you were and EWO, so I don't know where the Bom/Nav idea came from. 
Sorry about that.

I go back under my rock now.....

73s Rich W3OSS