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LOX At Clark


donwon
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When I went TDY to Clark From Sewart about Oct 64 There was a maint. persom filling the lox system.

We had always been told that LOX and grease did not mix and would go Boom.

I was about 3 planes away and on top of my plane,we were parked on the clover leafs when I saw a rescue helicopter come in real fast and land for a couple of minutes then take off again.

A little later I was told that one of the Maint. persons had tried to attatch the LOX to the plane and it exploded burning him pretty bad.

I don\'t remember his name but I heard he was sent to Walter Reed Hospital.

Doed anyone remember this and what happened to the Airman?

I was also told his wrench had grease on it.

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First thing get it straight, Lox does not burn or explode. It was the grease that exploded aided by the oxygenating liquid.

I was on B-47\'s in the late 50\'s and serviced many converters . Our little gig was to get the pincer bugs in the drip pan and cover them with lox, take the frozen bug and throw it ,it would shatter in a million pieces.

RZ Hill

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RZHill wrote:

First thing get it straight, Lox does not burn or explode. It was the grease that exploded aided by the oxygenating liquid.

I was on B-47\'s in the late 50\'s and serviced many converters . Our little gig was to get the pincer bugs in the drip pan and cover them with lox, take the frozen bug and throw it ,it would shatter in a million pieces.

RZ Hill

Did I say the LOX exploded or the grease exploded???

I don\'t know which one exploded but there was one and the maint. guy was burned pretty bed.

I also filled the 130,s and made dam sure my wrench didn\'t have any grease on it.

I felt the stuff was too dangerous to play around with.

Don

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Yep its dangerous stuff but the fun you can have... One night it involved a rat we caught on the flightline at Tinker - sweet.

There have been many incidents in the air force over the years with maintenance folks getting bit by this stuff, thats the reason they have some pretty graphic training films about screwing around with the stuff. I think we called it the pizza man film.

Dan

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The training film I recall was called \"man from lox\" likely the same film. I\'m sure that guy wasnt the first or the last that got caught.

I also had lots of fun with it, frogs, mice, bugs, etc.....COOL!

Sorry dont know anything about the guy at clark.

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Hey Donwon,I was on a 60 day rote to Clark with you when that happened. It was GOX not LOX and yes, the mechanic who was burned was picked up at the acft in an HH-43 Husky and taken to the base hospital. Another Sewart crew chief and I had the plane ready for the crew and it was due to rotate back to Sewart that day. We were sitting on the flt deck BSing and this guy drove up with the tractor and GOX cart and asked if we needed any O2 and we said no we had almost a full load. He said he would top us off anyway. We said ok but did not leave the flt deck like the regs said we should. After a couple of minutes all hell broke lose with a big WHOOSH and a million sparks at the right side of the nose and we jumped off the flt deck and found him laying next to the nose tire with the O2 hose from the cart whipping around. My friend dragged the burned mech across the drainage ditch and I drove the tractor toward the taxi way and jumped off. The guy was burned on his neck but his hands and fingers were burned very badly with skin hanging off. We lucked out that day though,the line from the servicing valve to the check valve was completly burned away but we had a check valve that did not leak, as most of them did, or it would have blown the O2 tanks under the flt deck and I wouldn\'t be writing this. They found an oily sealent on his 4 in. adj wrench. This was an A model. Larry South and Richard Putz were with us, do you remember them and are you Don Cameron? Bill

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No I\'m not Cameron. The name Larry South sounds familiar.

I Didn\'t remember a difference in the lox and gox.

I was about 3 planes away and saw the rescue chopter swoop in and was told later what happened.

I think Sgt Shifflet was my CC at the time.

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