VQ-1 Accidents and Crashes

The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Department of the Defense or the US Navy!

Complied by AMHC (AW) John D. Herndon (Retired), VQ-2 Member 1980-1991, 1996-1999 and Numerous Joint VQ-1 Detachments

Acknowledgements:

VQ-1 crash data courtesy of Captain Don C. East (Ret) VQ-2 CO from 07/82 - 07/83 and Chuck Huber. Additional thanks go out to previous VQ-1 members for their assistance with eyewitness accounts, their personal remembrances and photographs to this effort.

Our Eyes In The Sky
On a day long ago
In a far-away land,
You rose to the skies
To obey a command.

While we who were here
In our safe, secure place,
Never knew of the danger,
Never knew what you'd face.

We live in a land
That today is still free,
Who can measure the gift
To mankind and to me?

Our "Eyes in the Sky",
Looking down from above,
We hope you can see
What you gave us in love.

On a day long ago,
In a far-away land,
When you rose to the skies
To obey a command.

Chrystal Krueger Sinn, June, 1997

August 22, 1956, While on a patrol mission from NAS Iwakuni, Japan, this aircraft disappeared at night after reporting an attack by hostile aircraft 32 miles off the coast of China (near Wenchai) and 180 miles north of Formosa. There were no survivors of the 16-man crew. Wreckage and one body were recovered by Dennis J. Buckley (DDR 808)

LCDR Milton Hutchinson, LCDR JamesW.Ponsford, LTJG James B. Deane, LTJG. Francis A. Flood, Jr, AT2 Donald Wayne Barber, AO2 Warren Edgar Caron, AT3 Jack Albert Curtis, AT1 William Frederick Haskins, AO3 William Michael Humbert, AD1 H.E. Lounsbury, AT1 Albert Perry Mattin, AT2 Carl Edwin Messinger, AE2 Wallace Powell, AT3 Donald Eugene Sprinkle, AT2 Leonard Strykowski, and AD3 Lloyd Lewayne Young

May 28, 1959, crashed into Sea of Japan near MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, stalled during night approach. Aircraft was scrapped.

Fatalities:
LCDR. Burton W. Decker, Jr., LTJG. Allan F. DeWitt, AT1 Lawrence A. Coburn, AT2 Charles F. Stickels.

November 27, 1959, Lost at sea, ARTC Wake Island heard transmission: "Will bail out in approximately 15 minutes, unable to find Wake Island". No wreckage found. This was a new aircraft being delivered to Guam, the crew stopped by Whidbey Island to pick up Christmas Gifts.

Fatalities:
CDR. Francis J. Suhare, LTJG. Donald L. Schillinger, AD1 Robert C. Taylor, AMS1 Joseph D. Dulany.

January 13, 1961, Aircraft was lost while conducting a routine training mission at Atsugi Japan, Normal ASR approach. Crossed threshold ~ 50 feet. Wave off was initiated. Left wing dropped followed by the nose and A/C collided with the ground, Aircraft Commander Check Ride was being performed.

LT Hugh P. Sams, LCDR Ashley R. Hodge, AMS1 Edward Taylor and AO3 James O. Cladry. AMS1 Taylor died in the hospital 34 minutes after crash.

August 22, 1965 Aircraft crashed on landing at Atsugi Japan, Port main landing gear blew off at the main trunion where it attaches to the wing. Aircraft was a strike. From Dick Frantz: "I was plane captain on PR24, Bureau #135747. We were on our 12^th touch and go when I heard a loud “bang.” At first, I thought we had blown a tire but then the port wing kept dropping down. I then thought we had lost a wheel. When the port tip tank started touching the ground, I immediately knew that it wasn’t a wheel. Come to find out, the port gear had severed from the upper trunion underneath the port wing; therefore, causing the port gear to fly over the upper radom and landed 500 feet from the aircraft. The aircraft kept going down the runway, pulling to the port side. Onlookers said there were flames trailing from the port tip tank, but when we veered off the runway and got into the dirt, the flames extinguished. When the aircraft finally started veering off the runway into the first, it almost hit the wheels watch shack. The sailor inside was a “fast” Navy guy, as he quickly ran because there were props still turning on the starboard side of the aircraft. He was lucky! When the aircraft finally stopped, there were 7 members aboard; 6 opened the “over the wing” emergency exit and went down the port wing and jumped off. Our radioman, the 7^th member, went out the starboard side and jumped off the high side of the wing and broke his ankle. He wasn’t lucky. All survived with memories". Dick Frantz, AMH2 Plane Captain

June 6, 1967, Aircraft ran off the runway at Atsugi, in an aborted take off...Crew survived: LCDR Peterson, LT. Dixon, LT. Henry Schultz, ADJ3 Kopsie, AT1 Bennett, AQB2 Forest, CTT2 Dotter.

April 14, 1969, Aircraft with a crew of 30 were lost to hostile fire from two North Korean MiG fighters. Aircraft took off from Atsugi and headed northeast for a routine electronic reconnaissance mission off the North Korean coast. The flight plan called for the crew to proceed to a point off Musu Peninsula where they were to fly elliptical orbits, each about l20 miles long. At 1350, a little less than seven hours after takeoff, a U.S. Air Force tracking station monitoring the flight detected two new blips as a pair of North Korean MiGs rapidly closed on the unarmed VQ-1 aircraft. Although a prearranged message was sent to Overstreet ordering him to abort his mission, as the lumbering EC-121M turned away it was shot down southeast of Chongjin, North Korea, with a loss of all thirty crewmen. Only two bodies were subsequently recovered, those of LTJG Joseph R. Ribar and AT1 Richard E. Sweeney.

Fatalities:
LCDR. James H. Overstreet, LT. John N. Dzema, LT. Dennis B. Gleason, LT. Peter P. Perrottey, LT. John H. Singer, LT. Robert F. Taylor, LTJG. Joseph R. Ribar, LTJG. Robert J. Sykora, LTJG. Norman E. Wilkerson, ADRC Marshall H. McNamara, CTC Frederick A. Randall, CTC Richard E. Smith, AT1 Richard E. Sweeney, AT1 James Leroy Roach, CT1 John H. Potts, ADR1 Ballard F. Conners, AT1 Stephen C. Chartier, AT1 Bernie J. Colgin, ADR2 Louis F. Balderman, ATR2 Dennis J. Horrigan, ATN2 Richard H. Kincaid, ATR2 Timothy H. McNeil, CT2 Stephen J. Tesmer, ATN3 David M. Willis, CT3 Philip D. Sundby, AMS3 Richard T. Prindle, CT3 John A. Miller, AE3 LaVerne A. Greiner, ATN3 Gene K. Graham, CT3 Gary R. DuCharme, SSGT Hugh M. Lynch, (US Marine Corps).

March 16, 1970, crashed at DaNang AFB Vietnam after flight from Tainian, Taiwan. Aircraft had engine #1 trouble and was returning to DaNang, while landing another aircraft taxied into the runway, forcing an attempted overshot. The aircraft appeared to bank and go out of control as it was about to land. It crashed into a revetment and large maintenance hangar on the airbase, destroying the hangar and an F-4 Phantom. It then burst into flames and was destroyed, 23 of 31 killed.

Fatalities:
LCDR. Harvey C. K. Aiau, LCDR. Harry C. Martin, LT. George L. Morningstar, LT. Robin A. Pearce, LTJG. James M. Masters, Jr., LTJG. Charles E. Pressler, LTJG. Jean P. Souzon, ADRC William John Risse, ADR1 Arthur Simmons, ADR1 Donald W. Wilson, AT1 Larry O. Marchbank, AE2 Floyd E. Andrus III, ADR3 Gregary J. Asbeck, AMS2 William P. Bletsch, ATN2 Guy Thomas Denton, ATR2 Joseph S. Saukaitis, ATN2 John S. Schaefer, ADR2 Stuart J. Scruggs, ATN2 Barry M. Searby, ATN3 John Macy Birch, ATN3 Thurle E. Case, Jr., ATN3 Ben Allen Hughes, Jr., ATN3 Ralph S. Purdum.

CPO Robert K. Ishler, LT. Delivan Young, ATR2 Don Holder, LTJG. Val S. Watkins, ADR2 Hugh G. Shannon, AEAN Charles M. Bingham, ADR2 Stephen E. Westacott, AE2 Dean A. Merrill

August 4, 1982, Aircraft was lost in flight, disappeared over the Indian Ocean near Diego Garcia, while operating from the USS Ranger. The subsequent rescue and debrief of a single surviving crewmember. P02 Robert Lee Huff. indicated the EA-3B may have broken up in flight after control failure. They were presumed killed or lost at sea. A subsequent JAG investigation blamed the accident on a zero-gravity maneuver.

Fatalities:
LT. Michail F. Brown, LT. Frank N. Kertscher, LTJG. David A. Pies, Terry D. Smith, PO2 William B. Snider, PO3 Brian S. Watson.

January 23, 1985, the VA-3B disappeared from a radar tracking screen approximately 125 nautical miles north of Guam. The subsequent JAG investigation, completed in September, reported the Skywarrior took off from Atsugi at about 1000 Guam time. Twenty minutes later the crew contacted the VQ-1 detachment at Atsugi and reported an air turbine motor (ATM) was malfunctioning. The VA-3B continued on its course and stayed in radio contact with Navy officials, first on Iwo lima, and then on Guam. At 1230 Guam time the navigator reported the starboard ATM was shut down and the port one was heating up. Seventeen minutes later the aircrew requested permission to descend from 33,000 to 20,000 ft. Four minutes later, at 1251, radar contact was lost with the stricken aircraft. A massive air and sea search and rescue effort failed to locate any trace of the VA-3B or its crew and passengers.

An endorsement to the accident investigation by VADM James E. Service, Commander Naval Air Pacific, summed up by saying: “Although the exact cause of the mishap cannot be determined from available information, dual ATM failure with resultant flight control problems is the conclusion best supported by the circumstantial evidence.” The ATMs provide power for the hydraulic pumps, which in turn power the flight control surfaces.

Fatalities:
CDR. John T. Mitchell, LCDR. Robert E. Delateur, LT. Carlos A. Miller, LT Marshall L. Laird, LTJG. Richard A. Thomson, AMSC John T. Clark, AEC David K. Nichols,
AT3 Thomas J. Jorgenson, AD3 Thomas J. Degryse. Thus, CDR Mitchell became the first incumbent VQ-1 commanding officer to be killed in the line of duty.

June 01, 1987, Crashed during night FCLP's @ NAS Miramar, Aircraft impacted the ground after turning downwind subsequent to take off.

Any additional information concerning the VQ-1 accidents and crashes contact John Herndon vq2sandeman@hotmail.com