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On 24 January 1963 a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
Boeing B-52C Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...
with nine crew members on board lost its
vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
due to buffeting stresses during
turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...
at low altitude and crashed on Elephant Mountain in
Piscataquis County, Maine Piscataquis County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of the 2020 census, its population was 16,800, making it Maine's least-populous county. Its county seat is Dover-Foxcroft. The county was incorporated on March 23, 183 ...
, United States, from Greenville. The pilot and the
navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...
survived the accident.


Training mission

The crew's training mission was called a ''Terrain Avoidance Flight'' to practice techniques to penetrate ''Advanced Capability Radar'' (ACR) undetected by
Soviet air defense The Soviet Air Defence Forces (; ) was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western ai ...
during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. ACR training flights had already been made over the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...
on ''Poker Deck'' routes. This was to be the first low-level navigation flight, utilizing
terrain-following radar Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is ...
, in the Eastern United States. The crew, consisting of two 99th Bombardment Wing Standardization Division crews based at
Westover Air Force Base Westover may refer to: People *Al Westover (born 1954), American professional basketball player in Australia *Arthur Westover (1864–1935), Canadian sport shooter and 1908 Olympian *Charles Westover (1934–1990), better known as Del Shannon, Amer ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, and two instructors from the 39th Bombardment Squadron,
6th Strategic Aerospace Wing Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Music * Sixth interval (music)s: ** major sixth, a musical interval ** minor sixt ...
at Walker Air Force Base,
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, was briefed for six hours the day before the accident. They had the choice of flying over either the
Carolinas The Carolinas, also known simply as Carolina, are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the southwes ...
or
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
. The B-52C departed Westover AFB at 12:11 p.m. on Thursday, 24 January 1963, and was scheduled to return to Westover at 5:30 p.m. The crew spent the first 95 minutes of the flight calibrating their equipment. Upon receiving updated weather information for both available routes, they chose the northern one. They were supposed to begin their low-level simulated penetration of enemy airspace just south of Princeton, Maine, near West Grand Lake. From there, they would head north to Millinocket and fly over the mountains in the Jo-Mary/ Greenville area. They planned to turn northeast near Seboomook Lake and southeast near Caucomgomoc Lake to proceed through the mountains of northern Baxter State Park. After crossing Traveler Mountain, the aircraft was supposed to climb back to altitude over the Houlton VOR Station.


Accident

One hour later, around 2:30 p.m. the Stratofortress crossed the Princeton VOR, descended to and started its simulation of penetrating enemy airspace at low altitude with an
airspeed In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air it is flying through (which itself is usually moving relative to the ground due to wind). In contrast, the ground speed is the speed of an aircraft with respect to the sur ...
of . The outside temperature was with winds gusting to and of snow on the ground. Approximately 22 minutes later, just after passing Brownville Junction in the center of Maine, the aircraft encountered turbulence. When the pilot and crew commander, Westover's Most Senior Standardization Instructor Pilot, started to climb above it, the vertical stabilizer came off the plane with a "loud noise sounding like an explosion". Having suffered severe damage, the B-52C went into a 40-degree right turn, with nose pointed downward. The pilot gave the order to abandon the aircraft when he could not level it. Only the upper
flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...
crew members of the B-52C have
ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an exp ...
s that eject them upwards. The seats of the
pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
,
copilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is a Aircraft pilot, pilot in addition to the Pilot in command, captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command ...
, and electronic warfare officer (a navigator also trained in electronic warfare) function at any altitude, as long as the airspeed is at least , which is the minimum required to inflate their blast propelled
parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...
s. The lower-deck crew members eject on a downward track. Hence, the
navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...
and radar navigator cannot safely eject at altitudes less than . Spare crew members do not have an ejection seat at all. They must use parachutes and either jump out of the navigators' hatch after the navigators have ejected or drop out of the aircraft's door. The
tail gunner A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or au ...
has his own unique escape option: he can sever the tail gun and jump aft out the resulting hole in the rear. The navigator, who was operating as electronic warfare officer, ejected first. He was followed by the pilot and the copilot; there was neither enough altitude nor time for the six lower-deck crew members to escape before the aircraft crashed into the west side of Elephant Mountain at 2:52 p.m. The copilot suffered fatal injuries, striking a tree away from the main crash site. The pilot landed in a tree above the ground. He survived the night, with temperatures reaching almost , in his survival-kit sleeping bag atop his life raft. The navigator's parachute did not deploy upon ejection. He impacted the snow-covered ground before separating from his ejection seat about from the wreckage with an impact estimated at 16 times the force of gravity. He suffered a fractured skull and three broken ribs. The force bent his ejection seat and he could not get his survival kit out. He survived the night by wrapping himself in his parachute. A
grader A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during Grading (engineering), grading. Although the earliest models were towed b ...
operator on a remote woods road witnessed the final turn of the Stratofortress and saw a black smoke cloud after impact. Eighty rescuers from the
Maine State Police The Maine State Police (MSP) is the state police agency for Maine, which has jurisdiction across the state and was created in 1921. Training programs Maine State Troopers go through an 18-week Basic Law Enforcement training period at the Maine ...
, the Maine Inland Fish and Game Department, the
Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered, federally supported Nonprofit corporation, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliaries, auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CA ...
, as well as Air Force units from
Dow Air Force Base Bangor Air National Guard Base is a United States Air National Guard base located on the grounds of Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine. Created in 1927 as the commercial Godfrey Field, the airfield was taken over by the U.S. Army ju ...
in
Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...
, along with others from
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
and other volunteers, went to work. Search aircraft were on the scene, but they searched too far south and east to locate the wreckage before nightfall. After the crash site was located the next day,
Scott Paper Company The Scott Paper Company was a manufacturer and marketer of sanitary tissue products with operations in 22 countries. Its products were sold under a variety of well-known brand names, including ''Scott Tissue'', ''Cottonelle'', ''Baby Fresh'', ''S ...
dispatched plows from Greenville to clear of road of snow drifts up to deep. The rescuers had to use snowshoes, dog sleds and snowmobiles to cover the remaining mile to the crash site. At 11 a.m. the two survivors were airlifted to a hospital by a helicopter.


Accident investigation

The crash was caused by
turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...
-induced
structural failure Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...
. Due to buffeting stresses, the stabilizer shaft broke and the B-52's vertical stabilizer came off the plane. It was found from where the plane struck the mountain side. With the loss of the
vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
, the aircraft had lost its directional stability and
rolled Rolling is a type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an axially symmetric object) and translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the other moves), such that, if ideal conditions exist, the two are in contact ...
uncontrollably. Originally, the B-52 was designed to penetrate Soviet airspace at high altitude around and high speed around to drop nuclear weapons. When the US intelligence realized that the Soviets had implemented a sophisticated, layered and interconnected air defense system with radar controlled
surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...
s (SAMs), the US Air Force decided the B-52 would have to penetrate the Soviet airspace at low altitude (around ) and high speed to stay underneath the radar. However, low altitude, high speed flight operations put enormous stress on an aircraft's structure, especially when flying near mountains, up and down ridges and through valleys due to
lee waves In meteorology, lee waves are Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric stationary waves. The most common form is mountain waves, which are atmospheric internal gravity waves. These were discovered in 1933 by two German glider pilots, :de:Hans_Deutschmann ...
. The B-52 was not designed for this kind of operation. 56-0591, a B-52D, took off from
Larson AFB Larson Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located five miles (8 km) northwest of the central business district (CBD) of Moses Lake, in Grant County, Washington. After its closure in 1966, the airport facility became ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, on 23 June 1959 and experienced a horizontal stabilizer turbulence-induced failure at low level and crashed. The modification process of the B-52 series began in 1961. B-52C 53-0406, which crashed on Elephant Mountain, was the second high-tailed B-52 to suffer such a fatal structural failure. After extensive testing and another three similar failures (two with fatal crashes) within 12 months of the Elephant Mountain crash, Boeing determined that turbulence would over-stress the B-52's
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...
connection bolts, causing first a rudder and subsequently a tail failure. The bolts were strengthened throughout the fleet, fixing the problem.


Aftermath

Of the two survivors, the pilot returned to active duty after spending three months in the hospital and the navigator, whose feet were frostbitten, contracted double
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
, became unconscious for five days and his leg had to be amputated because
frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when someone is exposed to extremely low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occ ...
and
gangrene Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the ga ...
had set in. Most of the remains of ''53–0406'' are still at the crash site, owned by Plum Creek Timber Co. They improved the foot trail so visitors can view the wreckage. Although the site has signs posted asking viewers to show due respect while there, it has been vandalized with names carved in the wreckage or marked with permanent marker. In the late 1970s, a retired military pilot and president of the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club initiated the annual memorial snowmobile ride in honor of those aboard the B-52. The annual crash site ceremony is attended by representatives from the
Maine Air National Guard The Maine Air National Guard (ME ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Maine, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Maine Army National Guard, an element of the Maine National Guard of the ...
, the American Legion, the Civil Air Patrol, Maine Warden Service and members of the snowmobile club. There is a color guard, the laying of a wreath, the reading of the names of those who died, a prayer by a military chaplain and the playing of Taps. One engine and the navigator's ejection seat can be viewed at the Clubhouse. In 1993, a special commemorative service was sponsored by the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club. The navigator attended the event and was honored at several ceremonies. He went to the crash site for the first time since being evacuated thirty years earlier. In 2011, a Maine Forest Service employee found an ejection seat from the aircraft near an overgrown logging road while hunting. In May 2012 he returned to the site to take photos and record identification numbers to confirm it came from the ill-fated B-52. A recovery team retrieved the mostly intact ejection seat. Researchers claim that it is most likely the pilot's seat and remarkably similar to the seat at the snowmobile clubhouse in Greenville. It is the third seat recovered from the crash and preserved for public viewing. The other is in a Bangor museum. In 2013, 50 years after the crash, the Snowmobile Club held the annual remembrance at the crash site and the retired pilot gave a rare interview. Navigator Gerald Adler came face-to-face with his rescuer for the first time in 50 years during a Memorial Day event on 25 May 2013.


See also

* 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash * List of aircraft structural failures


References


External links

*
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
video files. Archive id 68755; local id 342-USAF-34150. 25–28 January 1963. Department of the Air Force video, hosted by Criticalpast.com. *
"CH-3 plane in flight for rescue operations after a B-52 crash on Elephant Mountain, Maine"
(Historic video of air search operations for B-52C s/n ''53‑0406''.) *
"Air search operations for B-52 crash on Elephant Mountain, Maine"
(Historic video of air search operations for B-52C s/n ''53‑0406''.) *
"Investigation team examines the scattered wreckage of B-52 crash on Elephant Mountain, Maine"
(Historic video of investigation team examining the wreckage of B-52C s/n ''53‑0406''.)
Contemporary video of the crash site - 2007
at YouTube
Contemporary video of the crash site - 2021
at YouTube * *


Related


"Pilot Lands B-52 After Losing Tail"
(Historic video of B-52H s/n ''61-0023'' landing without vertical stabilizer after test flight.)
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
, archive id 2050727; local id 200-UN-37-19. 10 January 1965. MCA/Universal Pictures newsreel, hosted by Criticalpast.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:1963 Elephant Mountain B-52 Crash 1963 in Maine Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1963 January 1963 in the United States 20th-century history of the United States Air Force Aviation accidents and incidents in Maine
Elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
Piscataquis County, Maine Aviation accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure