Embedded Files
Perhaps an underlying theme of this website is how easy it is to die flying the RA-5C, especially in combat. Combine its high accident rate with its high combat loss rate, and you have a problematic situation.
There is an old saying in flying, to the effect that “Aviation is not inherently dangerous, but to an extent even more than the sea, is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.”
Not all aviation accidents stem from aircraft actually in flight. An aircraft carrier flight deck is another terribly unforgiving environment.
Carrier Air Wing 17 was conducting its usual cyclic operations in the western Mediterranean in early 1968. The deck is always respotted following
the day’s, operations, with aircraft moving from the flight deck to the hanger bays for periodic maintenance. Moving a large aircraft such as the RA-5C is quite an operation. The process is under the direction of an aircraft handler, part of ship’s company. The aircraft was manned by a squadron plane captain, or brown shirt. These junior enlisted men (typically E-3 or E-4) were responsible for overall care of the aircraft from landing to subsequent takeoff, in many ways one of the most responsible jobs on the ship. Plane captains were typically rated as ADJ (“Aviation Machinist’s Mate - Jet)- see rating insignia nearby.
For most of this cruise, I was the Line Division Officer, responsible for overseeing the division where the plane captains made their home. Spaces were on the 03 level, starboard side, a short distance from the hatch to the catwalk, for easy access to the flight deck. As it happened, I had been relieved as division officer as part of normal junior officer rotation just a few weeks prior to this event. I was sitting in my stateroom taping a message to my spouse when an announcement came over the 1MC loudspeaker. I thought I heard “man overboard.” Normal response to this is to contact your unit duty officer and check in so that an accurate personnel count could be made. I did so but was told, it was not a man overboard, but an aircraft overboard!
Here’s what happened. The flight deck crew was respotting aircraft following the day’s operations. One of our aircraft was scheduled to go into a periodic maintenance process and needed to be moved to the hangar bay. A working party was assembled to conduct the routine operation, consisting of the aircraft handler(yellow shirt), a plane captain riding the brakes in the RA-5C cockpit and a couple of wing watchers. See image nearby for an idea of how close to the deck edge aircraft are spotted. Routinely the aircraft are backed onto the elevators, and the size of the RA-5C meant that the main landing gear mounts end up fairly close to the deck edge. The aircraft can be stopped by both the yellow gear tractor or the aircraft itself, as long as there is sufficient pneumatic pressure to operate the brakes. In fact, there is an external pneumatic pressure gauge on the port side of the aircraft beneath the pilot’s cockpit so that the yellow shirt knows the brake status.
What happened next was not entirely clear. Either the yellow shirt was moving too fast, or there was slippery spillage near the deck edge. Regardless, the aircraft main gear slipped off the edge and the aircraft flipped over on its back and fell into the water. Observers saw Treadwell stand up in the cockpit, but he was unable to exit before the fall overboard. An intensive search began and his body was recovered shortly thereafter.
I didn’t have access to the accident report, but I suspect the main cause was simply carelessness on the part of the flight director, who was performing a routine operation after all. Some tests conducted afterward showed the tractor could stop the aircraft within a few feet.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse