Copyright © - Nicholas Williams
Location: RAF Mildenhall
Date: Unknown
Copyright © - John Smith
Location: RAF Mildenhall
Date: 1972
Copyright © - Dave Peel
>
>
>
The next several pictures were submitted by Mike Fox. Here are the comments he sent along with the photos.
From 73 to 77 I was a Nav with the 41st. I can't remember the exact date, spring
of 1976 I think, we were flying one of Charleston's regular missions:
Chs-Norfolk-Rota. As we came into Rota at about 0900L, the nose gear broke off as
we touched down. No warning - just a big "boom" and the nose fell down on the
runway. Words of dismay were uttered and the pilots jerked the nose back up. They
held it up until the speed dropped and the nose fell back down. There was no
steering and eventually we skidded to a stop.
There was no bold print for this of course, but everyone acted on instinct. The
pilots pulled the handles and discharged the bottles. The engineer shut down his
panel in about 5 seconds as did I. Smoke was filling the cockpit as we stopped.
The load opened the door with one hand, threw the ladder out and then stopped
because it did not extend (we were too close to the ground), and the rest of us
hit him in the back all at once. We ran like hell as the fire-crews arrived. On
of the engineers went back in with the fire crew to help shut things off.
By the way, the fire had blistered the paint on the 25 liter crew oxygen bottle
below the cockpit.
We then spent a week in Rota for the accident board and deadheaded home. The
accident board was made all the more interesting by the fact that the Navy
somehow contaminated our blood samples and reported we were all at .20% or so
blood alcohol level.
We never learned why the gear fractured. I did hear later that the same thing had
happened to the plane years earlier at Elmendorf while taxiing.
The pilot's name was Bud Verschage. I think the copilot was Dhamer, but I'm not
sure. I can't recall the engineers or the load.
The pix are of us (of course), the plane in the foam, and the nose gear which
came to rest in the bushes.
Thank you for putting together the website. I enjoyed every minute in the 141s.
Michael L. Fox
Copyright © - Mike Fox
Copyright © - Mike Fox
Copyright © - Mike Fox
Copyright © - Radomir Zaric
Copyright © - Radomir Zaric
Boneyard
Copyright © - Paul Minert