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Guam Crash in the Seventies


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Does anyone know of the particulars involving the crash of a 130 on Guam around '74 or '76? I once heard some bizzare stories that the pilot's were flying a local around the island with some civilian flight attendents aboard, and that the FE and Nav refused to be onboard the aircraft. Any truth to this?

Kurt

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Does anyone know of the particulars involving the crash of a 130 on Guam around '74 or '76? I once heard some bizzare stories that the pilot's were flying a local around the island with some civilian flight attendents aboard, and that the FE and Nav refused to be onboard the aircraft. Any truth to this?

Kurt

yep tis true -- CP upgrade with an FA onboard -- supposidly in the FE seat when they crashed

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62-1841 crashed on take off returning to the US for PDM 20 Apr 1974 at Anderson, good pics in the Gallery.

The other one 64-0505 crashed at Agana NAS 9 Dec 72. An unauthorized flight, one of the reasons the LM was in the hotel.

Trying a 2 engine out no flap landing, was what I heard .

Two pilots, the nav, and FE were killed. One Panam stew was killed and off the top of my head, I think one other Panam stew and and Army Captain were injured. I was TDY to CCK at the time and Little Andy was really pissed off. But he still got promoted?

Bob

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  • 1 month later...

Bob, thanks for the info on 64-0505's crash. I knew it had crashed but had no particulars. I was the crew chief on her from June 1969 to July of 1970. The ironic thing is my 1st mission on 64-0505 was to Agana Guam in July of 1969. We were ther 2 weeks and during that time I saw the B-52 that Venom66 was asking about go over the cliff on takeoff and crashed. It appeared it lost an engine on takoff roll as it reached the no abort zone. When we saw it going down the runway we had a feeling it wasn't going to make it. It ran off the end of the runway and dropped out of sight. About a minute later we saw the smoke.

I had seen another B-52 crash in July of 1967 at Da Nang. The plane was making an emergency landing. It landed long and ripped the chutes off and burned up the brakes. It jumped the road that went around the edge of the runway and landed in a mine field where it exploded. There was a 300 foot fireball and a large explosion. The only person that go out was the tail gunner. 2 days later we were driving down the road near the flight line, we saw a flight crew member walking on the side of the road. We stopped and picked him up and gave him a ride to the chow hall. Turned out to be the tail gunner from the B-52. A few days later we were attacked just after Midnight and the VC hit an F-4 parked off of our wingtip. My plane at that time was 62-1815 which caught fire and burned the left wing all the way to #1 engine. We were flying the Cricket mission on an EC130E ABCCC aircraft.

While we were there at Guam we were watching TV in the Airman's CLub and watched as the Astronauts landed on the Moon.

I also found out you can't wear Jungle Fatigues on Guam. While me and Assistant were walking to the Chow Hall a Staff Car with the Base Commander pulled up. We saluted and were presented to the Base Commander who was not happy that we were messing up his base. We showed him our TDY orders. I was informed that if we were there 1 day past our TDY I would be locked up.I also was refused o be fed by an airman at the Cjow Hall. When I pointed out to his Sarge that he was required to feed us we got to eat. Never went back to Guam.

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speaking of acft wreckage at guam,i was the cc on a typhoon relief mission to anderson in 93.a marine c-130 was parked in a fuel cell hanger and was not moored down and the plane just bounced up and down in the hanger damaging the ramp,cargo door,right wingtip,and the elevators. Also,the b-52 that was on static display was picked up off its mounts by the wind and set down about 10 to 15 feet away.An f-4 that was also on display was just a ball of junk.And one of those 'golf ball' covered radar towers was found about a mile away.

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I was in the 17th TAS for three years and this crash happenrd a few months after i left. Ihad flew in to Sparrevon many times as ever one in the 17th did. I found this old news paper clipping about the crash and thought some of the older 17th crews would like to read it.

Elmendorf AFB Alaska (AP) It may be several months before the Air Force detemines why aC130 transport plane crashed killing all seven persons on bord. The plane was on a routine supply mission when it crashed and exploded Friday while on approach for landing at Sparrevhon air station a remote radar site in the Alaskan Air Defense Syatem about 160 miles west of Anchorage

A seven member board from the Military Airlift Command at Scott AFB was on its way to the crash site over the weekend. Air Force crews removed aircraft wreckage and bodies of the victimes. Eyewitnesses said the aircraft expoled on impact with the ground just short of the 4000 foot gravel runway. Information officer at Elmendorf said pilots have described the field as one of the most difficult in Alaska . The victimes were identifed as the planes commander Capt Robert W. Raulston, 35,of Philadelphia ,Co pilot 1st Lt. Curtin M wells,26, ofTulsa Okla.,navigator, 1st LT Steven R Cannon,25 of Detroit,flight engineer Tech. Sgt Peter J. Staffan,33,of Mackinaw Mich. loadmaster Tech Sgt. James W. Gainey,40, of Pittsburgurgh Pa.Two passengers,Senior Master SgT Duanea Edquist,43 of Litchfield Park Ariz. And Capt. Arthur F Klein,32,of Nashville Tenn. The C130 and its crew were attached to the 17th Tactical Airlift Squadron at Elmendorf. This happened in late 1977 or early 1988 I could be a little of on the date but not much

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I was in the 17th 82-86, FE, IFE, SEFE. I seem to remember talk of the crash but somehow I recall it was on take-off not landing.... Maybe a memory issue! Sparrevohn was always a challenge. It was a tough site. Fly over "Pu$$y Ridge", immediate rapid descent until landing, and oh, miss the huge lip at the approach end of the runway. Once on the runway, in the winter, we did the tough and go checklist. If the parking ramp was icy and the plane started sliding on the sloped ramp as you tuned around, you just turned the nose down the runway and took off.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Does anyone know of the particulars involving the crash of a 130 on Guam around '74 or '76? I once heard some bizzare stories that the pilot's were flying a local around the island with some civilian flight attendents aboard, and that the FE and Nav refused to be onboard the aircraft. Any truth to this?

Kurt

The official cause of the 374TAW bird out of Andersen was "oculographic illusion". From what I understand, a very dark (as in no moon) night take-off, the aircraft over rotated on T/O, no ground visual references, the pilot sensing the pitch was to great and over compensated by pushing the nose down (hence the oculographic phenomenon), failed to maintain positive rate of climb, and then grantitis impactus off the end of the runway.

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  • 3 months later...

I was in 54 WRS at Andersen when the crash off rwy 6 occurred in 1974. Those who've been there will recall that the runway is kind of concave shaped--slopes down to midfield, then slopes up. Nothing but pitch black off the end of the runway(s) at night. Perfect setup for spatial disorientation, as mentioned. No FDRs or CVRs in USAF Herks those days. Accident investigation was a lot of best guesses back then--still is.

I was in 17 TAS when "Much 66" crashed at Sparrevohn AFS, Alaska about 2PM April 28th, 1978. Best guess was mishandling of flaps on approach or missed approach/go-around. Gear was down, engines all pulling high power, flaps were retracted. Indicated airspeed at impact was 65 KIAS. My own guess is flaps were called for 100% and set to 0% mistakenly, and like the book says "less stall warning in the cruise and landing configuration" or something like that. Snow showers in the area at the time. In those days, the approach was: complete procedure turn on 225 bearing from the radio beacon between 10 and 15 miles from the beacon; fly contact to the field. Weather minimums were rather high 1500-5 or something like that.

Edited by Fred
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  • 3 years later...
  • 1 month later...

Yeah, I know about the crash on Guam. It was my crew. I was grounded in Danang with my sinuses blown out from an RD. Candyman was taken to a hospital in Japan where he died from burns. Think a crew chief was on board, but no Loadmaster. I think they flew back to Ton Sun Nhut after I got grounded in Danang and picked up another Loadmaster. I had left all the information I had on it on the forum when this was herkybirds.com ..... not sure if those threads still exist.

776patch.gif

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  • 1 year later...

Greetings,

I am a new member and the news I have to contribute is antique. However, I was moved to join this Forum having come upon this thread and because of a long-standing interest in an item on a particular involving a rumored crash of a 130 on Guam supposedly having a stewardess at the controls during the late 60's.

I recently came across this thread and was moved to join the Forum for this purpose.

During this period of antiquity I was a BUF Nav flying from Utapao, Kadena and Guam. We rotated from our US bases through Guam for the 189 day TDY's we pulled for those of us flying the old model B-52 having the special bomb-bay modification for high density loads of iron bombs.

One thing I heard during a short stint on Guam in either 67, 68 or 69 was about a C-130 crash (I thought it was one of the Rescue birds on the Island) doing touch-n-go and local area pilot proficiency stuff and all were fatalities but load master who had strapped himself onto the aft ramp in anticipation of something going terribly wrong once a civilian female aboard got into the right seat at the invitation of the pilot.

The story I heard was that a stewardess was invited to fly the plane and that she was aboard for that purpose having been met by the Pilot in some daring do in Agana during the evening before. I never could verify it though later did become a C-130 Nav (Reserve) during grad school after leaving Regular AF. (I had 3 years in the A and B model 130's in 70-73 out of Ellington).

I recently happened upon the thread with the mention of the crash, though different particulars, so decided to join this Forum to give my 2 cents worth.

The BUF crash at Da Nang was an attempted night landing following air abort caused by total electrical failure and then long landing and over-run into mine field. As noted, Gunner was only survivor.

The BUF crash off the end of the runway in Guam in July 69 involved good friends from my Squadron. The right wing came off shortly before unstick. The crash ultimately led to a full investigation of the "D" model aircraft and quite a number were declared not airworthy and were abandoned to serve as parts supply because of serious cracks in wing and fuselage.

Regards to all,

Dave S.

Figmo

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Bob:

You can put this down as Twilight Zone material Bob, but it was in late 60's that I heard of the crash--most likely 68 or 69. My entire crew learned of it and we BS'd about it. We speculated as to where and how the Pilot had met the stewardess and the Airline etc. We were under the impression that the 130 was attached to an air-sea rescue outfit but we didn't know if it was AF or Navy but we had the impression it was a PCS assignment.

I left Guam in September 1969 and never was on the island again.

I had looked for this crash on and off on the Internet probably starting around mid 90's and then over the years and never saw anything on it until this Forum -- then joined to follow up (as you know as I believe you handled my application).

How to explain this conflict in dates? I have no idea. I was in BUF's and heard of the crash in the 60's. I do not dispute anything you say and I likewise know what I heard and when I heard it.

I do not have a Certificate suitable for framing from the Flight Surgeon for having delusions ;) and until recently I had put the incident in my rear view mirror as an embarrassing event that the military had swept under the rug as a Southeast Asia fog of war thing.

Whatever . . . . .

Dave S.

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I was at CCK in Dec 1972 when 64-0505 crashed. I knew the AC, Jim Sanborn. I have the accident report on my desk here with the list of all on board. The AC, 2 CP's, 2FE's, No LM- he was in the hotel, 2 army officers, and a civilian female- Panam flight attendant.

Then I went back and looked up all the worldwide Herk accidents in 1968 and 1969.

There were on accidents on Guam in those years.

Bob

If you find out anymore about it please let me know.

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