35 years ago, Mid air over Karlsruhe

[jknaus]

If this is not allowed by all means remove it.
Hard to believe it was 35 years ago today. Just finished shift and was picking up wife from work when the 1 bell sounded. Went home, changed and got my kit and off to Karlsruhe for 3 or 4 weeks. 2 Cf-188s mid aired over the city. One pilot landed on the autobahn the other perished. So much luck was in the city as noone else was injured. Too many stories to tell. Here is a news snippet and the picture was from the site I was at. We had to split in two to cover both major sites although parts were spread all over .

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[moon puppy]

Wow, don't think I ever heard about this. But it was a while ago.
I got to Grand Forks not long after the B52 blew up on the SAC ramp. Some of the wreckage was still in the hanger I trained in. Creepy.

What do you mean when you say the bell rang James?

 

[Sharkmouth]

What do you mean when you say the bell rang James?

Same as our time when the beeper went off... You had to report to work. Before the alphanumeric beepers, you didn't even know why or the severity. Assume the worst and hope for the best.

 

[RichB]

It is the crash/emergency alarm system. Bells followed by PA from the Control Tower with the nature of the emergency. IIRC it breaks down as follows:
One Bell - Crash
Two Bell - Airborne Emergency
Three Bell - Ground Emergency
Four Bell - System Test

We got a wakeup call everyday just after 0800 (1300-1400 when night flying was on) when the Control Tower would conduct an Alarm and PA system test.

Cheers,
RichB

 

[panamadan]

Wow, don't think I ever heard about this. But it was a while ago.
I got to Grand Forks not long after the B52 blew up on the SAC ramp. Some of the wreckage was still in the hanger I trained in. Creepy.

What do you mean when you say the bell rang James?

Isn't that one that had nukes on board?

 

[Impisi]

oh yes, now as I read this I remember the news back then.

 

[moon puppy]

Isn't that one that had nukes on board?

That was the fire on the alert ramp in 1980.
In hindsight, Grand Forks didn't have a good reputation did it?

The explosion in 1983 supposedly was caused by someone holding in a circuit breaker during a fuel pump test. Story was the scorn ex girlfriend of the A/C crew chief was sabotaging the test just to make him look bad. BUT, Seeing what the Navy attempted to do on the USS Iowa explosion by trying to blame the crew instead of the 50 year old powder bags...I question those findings.

 

[Rhino]

This movie tells and interesting and informative story about the 1989 USS Iowa turret 2 mishap.

On a rainy Saturday in Davenport a while back, I saw Glenn Smith auger in trying to save his L-39. The impact fireball and crater were pretty big. The NTSB said Glenn's elevator jack became disconnected and locked the Albatros into full nose-down pitch.
I am convinced Glenn had time to eject over the cornfield, but he stayed with his jet for his last critical seconds of life.

It didn't seem like that long ago.

 

[moon puppy]

You're right, doesn't seem so long ago in 2007 that Lt Cmd Davis crashed at Beaufort.

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I got pictures some where but I know I didn't take photos of the crash.

 

[RichB]

Many of the ex-military jet trainers/fighters do not have "hot" seats. Due to the age of them, it can be difficult and very expensive to find the pyro charges to operate the seat and perform regular maintenance and inspections. Throw in the lack of training available on the ejection system and pilots possibly being outside the seat limits for height and weight and an ejection maybe be fatal.

When we had the Golden Hawk Sabre flying in 2009 for the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada, AETE installed a CT114 seat in place of the F-86 seat so RCAF pilots could fly it at airshows. The disabled F-86 was put back in after a couple years when RCAF pilots were no longer flying it.

Cheers,
RichB

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Many of the ex-military jet trainers/fighters do not have "hot" seats. Due to the age of them, it can be difficult and very expensive to find the pyro charges to operate the seat and perform regular maintenance and inspections. Throw in the lack of training available on the ejection system and pilots possibly being outside the seat limits for height and weight and an ejection maybe be fatal.

When we had the Golden Hawk Sabre flying in 2009 for the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada, AETE installed a CT114 seat in place of the F-86 seat so RCAF pilots could fly it at airshows. The disabled F-86 was put back in after a couple years when RCAF pilots were no longer flying it.

Cheers,
RichB

Very interesting Rich. Never realized that there was a time limit on the eject seat usefulness.