They were farther off course than they realized ...
Posted on 09/22/2022 11:25:14 AM PDT by robowombat
1956 B-47 disappearance
1956 B-47 disappearance 10 March 1956 Summary Missing, status unknown Site Mediterranean Sea Aircraft type Boeing B-47E Stratojet Operator United States Air Force Registration 52-534 Flight origin MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, United States Destination Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco Passengers 0 Crew 3 Fatalities Unknown Injuries Unknown Survivors Unknown The 1956 B-47 disappearance occurred on 10 March 1956 over the Mediterranean Sea.
Contents 1 Flight 2 Aftermath 3 See also 4 References Flight A Boeing B-47 Stratojet, call-sign Inkspot 59, (306th Bombardment Wing/369th Bomb Squadron) took off from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, in the United States for a non-stop flight to Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco,[1] and completed the first of two planned aerial refuelings without incident.[2]
After descending through solid cloud cover 90 miles southwest of Oran, to begin the second refueling at 14,000 feet (4,300 m), B-47E serial number 52-534,[1] ceased communication with the KC-97 tanker aircraft.[3]
The unarmed aircraft was transporting two different capsules of nuclear weapons material in carrying cases; a nuclear detonation was not possible.[4]
Aftermath
Location of Ben Guerir Air Base;Saïdia; Oran A French news agency reported that the plane had exploded in the air southeast of Saïdia, in French Morocco in the same general location of its last known position. After an exhaustive search, no remains of the device could be located, and the exact place of its disappearance was never established.[3][5]
The crew was declared dead:[6]
Captain Robert H. Hodgin, 31, aircraft commander Captain Gordon M. Insley, 32, observer 2nd Lt. Ronald L. Kurtz, 22, pilot
Fascinating story. Thanks.
They were farther off course than they realized ...
"No remains of the device"? Did they mean "no remains of the aircraft"?
Despite an extensive search, no debris were ever found, and the crash site has never been located.
Device is a term for a nuclear weapon
Of course back in 1956 the Bermuda Trangle was much larger, extending all the way to Pittsburgh. But due to global warming in the intervening years, the Bermuda Triangle has shrunk considerably. The last living person to know the exact location of the Bermuda Triangle was the late Robert Stack. It's an unsolved mystery to this day.
B-47s had a bad problem of catastrophic wing failure. Probably has a wrong separate out over the ocean, nobody got out, and it all went to the bottom of the Atlantic.
It was a fatigue problem created by a toss bombing technique that pulled a lot of Gs
Wing
The three air crew were given new identities and held in a secret Israeli palacial prison where the air crew were provided with beautiful Sabra girls who were recruited to serve the State of Israel
They lost, and never found, a B-25 in the Monongahela River 31 Jan 1956 near Homestead (town outside of Pittsburgh PA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1955%E2%80%931959)#1956
The B-47 was involved in a number of hair raising incidents. Here are two from 1955:
5 January
Two Boeing B-47E Stratojets of the 44th Bomb Wing from Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana, collide over the Gulf of Mexico during refuelling Wednesday night, causing one to crash and the other to limp home to base with damage, sans its observer who bailed out over the Gulf. Air-sea rescue teams began a search of the Gulf in an area some 30 miles (48 km) SE of Cameron, Louisiana, on the Gulf coast.[3] B-47E-5-DT, 52-029, is lost with all three crew. The observer who bailed out was also never found.[4] The pilot of the recovered bomber stated that the lost plane apparently smashed down on his aircraft from above, “leaving wheel tracks on the cabin before it spun off to crash in Gulf waters. Capt. Morris E. Shiver, 29, of Albany, Ga., said ‘we never knew what hit us’ as the two six-jet bombers crashed together Wednesday night about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Cameron, La. An armada of planes and ships searched Thursday for the four airmen missing after the crash. Three of them were aboard the B47 which plunged into the Gulf, while the fourth, 1st Lt. Matthew Gemery, of Lakewood, Ohio, an observer, could have returned on his limping plane had he waited another minute before ejecting himself. They identified Maj. Sterling T. Carroll, 33, of Port Arthur, Tex., as the commander of the plane that returned, and Shiver as the pilot. The other three missing airmen were Maj. Jean S. Pierson, of Danville, Ind., aircraft commander; Capt. David O. Crump, of Albemarle, N.C. [sic], copilot, and father of six children, and 1st Lt. Rodney P. Egelston of Levelland, Tex., observer-bombardier.”[5]
6 January
“BRAMAN, Okla. (AP) – A crippled B47 six-engine jet bomber barrel-rolled, crashed and exploded in a wheat field a mile east of here Thursday, killing all three crewmen aboard. The plane, from McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita, Kan., disintegrated into hundreds of pieces after the explosion in this farm area of North Central Oklahoma near the Kansas border. Maj. Lawrence Tacker of McConnell AFB identified the dead as: Capt. Wayne E. Andrew of Yellow Springs, Ohio, commander of the plane; 1st Lt. Joseph C. Cook, co-pilot, Sunland, Calif.; Capt. William C. Berry, observer, Dayton, Ohio. The wives and families of the men are living temporarily in Wichita.
O. O. McMasters, who lives here, said he heard the plane coming from the north and in distress. McMasters said it suddenly barrel-rolled and crashed. A crater 10 to 12 feet deep (4 m) was left in the pasture. Bits of the crewmen’s bodies and the plane were scattered for hundreds of yards. The plane landed on the Horne farm and the explosion was so great it rocked Bramen a mile away.”[6] B-47B-30-BW Stratojet, 51-2086, of the 3520th Flying Training Wing lost.
Looks like a Mini B-52
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One of the most beautiful airplanes - of any sort - ever designed and built.
I remember reading in a reference book some years ago that the emphasis for developing the B-52 came when General LeMay was being briefed on the number of B-47‘s that would be required to complete various contingency plan conventional strike missions.
When he remarked about how many B-47s were being required for execution (a lot), the plans officer doing the briefing said the general needed think about the B-47 in terms of roughly the number of B-17 missions that would be required to destroy the same target. This was because the conventional bomb carrying capacity of the B-47 wasn’t really that much different than the B-17 (14k (max (all internal) vs 17k (max (internal and external))).
The B-47 just flew higher, faster, and further than its WWII predecessor. Of course, the B-47s primary mission was nuclear strike against the Soviet Union.
Not sure if the B-47 ever dropped a conventional bomb in anger.
My dad flew the B-47.
Also, refueling a slick airplane like the B-47 with a high stall speed from a piston-engine KC-97 required a shallow dive during the link-up and max power from the KC-97. Plenty of things could go wrong after the break.
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