1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash

Savage Mountain B-52 crash

The test of B-52H 61-0023 demonstrated the loss of vertical stabilizer in strong winds.

10 January 1964: 3 days before the Savage Mountain crash, a New Mexico B-52 test showed the vertical stabilizer could fail.
Accident summary
Date 13 January 1964 (1964-01-13)
Summary Structural failure
Site Savage Mountain, Garrett County (near Barton, Maryland)
39°33′55″N 79°04′33″W / 39.565278°N 79.075833°W / 39.565278; -79.075833 (1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash)Coordinates: 39°33′55″N 79°04′33″W / 39.565278°N 79.075833°W / 39.565278; -79.075833 (1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash)
Crew

5:

  • Pilot: Maj Thomas W. McCormick
  • Co-pilot: Capt Parker C. Peedin
  • Radar bombardier: Maj Robert J. Townley[1]
  • Navigator: Maj Robert Lee Payne
  • Tail gunner: TSgt Melvin F. Wooten
Fatalities 3
Survivors 2 (Pilot, copilot)
Aircraft type Boeing B-52D Stratofortress
Operator 484th Bombardment Wing, Heavy (SAC, United States Air Force)
Registration 55-060
(c/n 464012,[2] call sign "Buzz 14")
Flight origin Westover Air Force Base
Destination

Turner Air Force Base

Crash site
Barton, MD
Crash site in Maryland

The 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash was a U.S. military nuclear accident in which a Cold War bomber's vertical stabilizer broke off in winter storm turbulence.[3] The two nuclear bombs being ferried were found "relatively intact in the middle of the wreckage",[4] and after Fort Meade's 28th Ordnance Detachment secured them,[5] the bombs were removed two days later to the Cumberland Municipal Airport.[6]

Accident description

The B-52D was returning to Georgia from Massachusetts after an earlier Chrome Dome airborne alert to Europe.[7] Near Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, on a path east of Salisbury, Pennsylvania;[8] and after altitude changes to evade severe turbulence;[4] the vertical stabilizer[7] broke off. The aircraft was left uncontrollable as a result; the pilot ordered the crew to bail out, and the aircraft crashed. The wreckage of the aircraft was found on the Stonewall Green farm.[8] Today, the crash site is in a private meadow of Elbow Mountain[9] within Savage River State Forest, along the public Savage Mountain Trail just north of the Pine Swamp Road crossing.[10]

Crew

As the only crew member who did not eject, the radar bombardier[1] died in the crash and was not located until more than 24 hours afterward.[11] The navigator and tail gunner died of exposure in the snow. The navigator's body was found two days[1] after the accident, 6 miles (10 km) from the crash and 3 miles (5 km) away[12] from where his orange parachute was found near Poplar Lick Run[8]:1 – he had left his unused survival tent and "meandered" into and out of an open barn as with hypothermia stages 2 & 3.[1] After landing in the "Dye Factory field", the tail gunner trekked in the dark with a broken leg and other injuries[1] over 100 yards (90 m) to the embankment of Casselman River – in which his legs were frozen when his body was found five days later, 800 yards (700 m) from a Salisbury street light.[8]:2,4

The pilot parachuted into Maryland's Meadow Mountain ridge near the Mason–Dixon line and, after being driven to the Tomlinson Inn on the National Road in Grantsville,[8]:2 notified the United States Air Force of the crash. The co-pilot landed near New Germany Road and remained "cozy warm" until rescued.[8]:2

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Johnson, Richard Riley (1995). Twenty Five Milk Runs (And a few others): To Hell's Angels and back. Victoria, Canada: Trafford Publishing. pp. 261–2. ISBN 1-4120-2501-X. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
  2. Baugher, Joseph F., "1955 USAF Serial Numbers", Encyclopedia of American Aircraft, retrieved 8 November 2009
  3. Sagan, Scott Douglas (1995). The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons. Princeton University Press. p. 202 (footnote 125). ISBN 0-691-02101-5. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  4. 1 2 "Narrative Summaries of Accidents Involving U.S. Nuclear Weapons: 1950–1980" (pdf). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  5. Dearth, Dan (10 November 2010). "Soldier secured nukes at B-52 crash in 1964". Herald News (Hagerstown, Maryland). Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  6. Whetzel, Dan (2002). "A Night to Remember" (pdf). Mountain Discoveries: 48–51. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  7. 1 2 "Accident Description". AviationSafetyNetwork.net. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wood, David. "B-52 Crash". SalisburyPA.com: Newhouse News Service. Retrieved 2 November 2009. (article + 5 pages of photos & clippings)
  9. "Crew Bails Out As Jet Crashes". Playground Daily News 17 (244) (Morning ed.) (Fort Walton Beach, Florida). United Press International. 14 January 1964. p. 1.
  10. Dreisbach, Mike (11 November 2009), visitor information, Savage River Lodge (The "Savage River State Forest Trail Map" inaccurately names & depicts the "1962 B-52 Crash Site" as 1/6-mile on the incorrect (east) side of Westernport Road & 1/6-mile south of Swamp road.
  11. "Secrecy Still Shrouds Plane Crash" (PDF). Utica Observer-Dispatch. 14 January 1964. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  12. Beitler, Stu (6 August 2009). "Cumberland, MD (near) Bomber Crash, Jan 1964". Retrieved 12 November 2009.

External links


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