T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
RAPID DECOMPRESSION

Jesse Short

My father (Van Short) was a C-141 pilot for his Air Force career. I believe it's the only airframe he flew while in the Air Force. His younger brother was also in the Air Force, originally as an F-4 weapons officer then also on C-141s and then finally C-17s.

From AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1989

All Air Force flight crew members who fly in pressurized aircraft are required to go through altitude chamber training periodically. There's a good reason for this requirement. A sudden decompression at high altitude can be fatal to everyone on board. Quick crew reaction is essential.

Such an occurrence may be rare, but it happened to Maj. Van E. Short, aircraft commander of a C-141B on a mission from Charleston AFB, S. C., to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic last October. Major Short and his Reservist crew are members of the 707th Military Airlift Squadron (Associate) based at Charleston. The flight crew that day consisted of Maj. Richard E. Gurrieri, flight examiner pilot; 2d Lt. Paul V. Rancatore, copilot; CMSgt. Richard R. Fuller, flight engineer flight examiner; MSgt. Richard D. Williams, instructor flight examiner; TSgt. Benson S. Futrell, flight engineer; TSgt. Anthony R. Reyes, flight engineer; SSgt. Rex L. Litchfield, loadmaster; and SSgt. William L. Morris, loadmaster. Also on board were fourteen passengers.

While cruising at 37,000 feet at night over the Atlantic between Antigua and Ascension, the aircraft encountered severe clear-air turbulence. After a violent downward jolt, the No. 1 engine compressor stalled. The aircraft yawed to the left, and the No. 4 engine also stalled. A few seconds later, the No. 2 emergency hatch blew out, filling the cargo compartment with fog, debris, and horrendous noise. The escape ladder was sucked out, damaging the fuselage and vertical stabilizer as it flew by.

The report of the ensuing few minutes shows the value of previous training for just such emergencies. Chief Fuller, who was sitting next to the flight engineer panel, felt that the aircraft was coming apart, even though the cockpit entrance door was closed, somewhat muffling the overall effects of the blowout. Sergeant Williams, who had been asleep in the crew loft just forward of the blown hatch, was dazed but managed to climb down to the cockpit before becoming incoherent and passing out. The crew quickly found out that during a rapid decompression, their time of useful consciousness without pressurized oxygen was only about seven seconds.

The pilots donned their masks, pulled the engines to idle, and began a descending right turn. The pilot and flight engineer completed the rapid-decompression checklist, while the copilot attempted to contact [control centers] to declare an emergency in uncontrolled airspace. There was no response. Chief Fuller was pinned down by Sergeant Williams, but managed to reach another mask and used force to hold it to Williams's face until he recovered. At the same time, Sergeant Reyes, the student flight engineer, administered oxygen to a passenger in the jump seat who had become unconscious.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Morris, one of the loadmasters, had passed out on the cargo floor, and the passengers seated in the cargo compartment were having life-threatening problems. Some couldn't reach their oxygen masks; some couldn't get a good facial fit and were losing vital pressure.

Sergeant Williams began filling portable oxygen bottles with which Chief Fuller and Sergeant Litchfield tended passengers. Some were panicking; three were slumped in their seats; two more had passed out on the cargo deck, one of them in convulsions.

Major Short left the flight deck with Major Gurrieri at the controls and helped Sergeant Morris recover. He then assisted the fourteen passengers until all were sitting up and giving the "thumbs up" sign. When the aircraft leveled off at 10,000 feet, the copilot radioed Ascension Island and notified controllers that the aircraft was returning to Antigua, where Major Gurrieri made the landing. As the report states matter-of-factly, "As a result of the crew's quick actions, no casualties or injuries resulted."