98th Bombardment Wing
(No Aircraft Yet)
98th Bombardment Group
Spokane (later, Fairchild) AFB, Washington
16 Aug 1950-8 Apr 1952
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(No Aircraft Yet)
McDill AFB, Florida
8 Apr 1952-22 Nov 1953
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(No Aircraft Yet)
Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana
22-25 Nov 1953
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KC-97F/G
98th Bombardment Wing
Lincoln AFB, Nebraska
18 Feb 1954-15 Apr 1963
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KC-135Q/T
92nd Air Refueling Wing
Fairchild AFB, Washington
1 Jul 1994-1998
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Click on each photo or article below to view.
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Crash Story of 98th KC-97G 52-2724 on December 9th 1955
It all started with a large number of tankers from different locations participating in a special mission. Bombers (mostly B-47's) were trying to penetrate the North American Air Defense Zone from over the North Pole. Our mission was to refuel these planes over Greenland, mostly.
While refueling, we had an engine give indications of trying to "run
away." The flight engineer kept a very close eye on the gauges, and we
were able to complete our refueling of a B-47 and then, the engine did
speed up rapidly. The engineer caught it, but had to feather the prop
and shut it down. We were all nervous about that engine, but the
northern lights also had us all shook up. About everybody that flew that
night was experiencing vertigo from the lights. We declared an emergency
and tried to get permission to land at Thule, which was very near. We
were denied permission because "a Bomber may have to use the runway IF
they lose an engine". The fact that we were flying on 3 didn't matter.
We then asked permission to fly to England (Lakenheath) where our
original TDY base was. Again, denied. We were ordered to land at
Keflivick, Iceland (?) where our special mission originated. They had zero-zero
conditions with blowing snow. Lakenheath was clear. We proceeded to
Iceland and found that they couldn't give us a GCA (Ground Control Agency) landing, since the
portable GCA unit "Might get stuck in the snow" and gave us a PPI
landing. We were told that we were over the runway and could descend.
The crew couldn't see anything, so the pilot elected to go around. He
put the landing gear lever to the up position and started a climb. Very
shortly after that, the other boom operator and I both reported green
flashes on the external fuel tanks. We thought it might be the airport
beacon, and about that time, the pilot saw the runway. We dropped very
fast and bounced about 50 feet in the air, and when we came back down,
the right landing gear collapsed and we took a sliding run for over 4000
feet on the runway before the plane went off into some rocks. We were
stopped by a nice friendly boulder in front of our nose gear. I went out
the left rear and don't think I left footprints in the snow. The rest of
the crew went down the right wing. Fuel fumes were so strong it made you
sick. The props on the right shredded when they hit the runway and went
through the fuselage and landed in the fuselage fuel tanks. Electrical
wiring and control cables were cut, as was the fuselage. (2 good sized
men could have crawled through the hole at the same time.) No one can
understand why it didn't blow, but someone was certainly watching over
the crew that night. Not much of an accident, as accidents go, but it
was the last one I ever wanted to be in, and it was.
I forgot part of the crash info. After the pilot started the go around, the co-pilot started the gear down again. Later, it was determined that they hadn't cycled and had failed to lock when they got down. The accident board decided that the pilot was the sole reason for the
accident and grounded him for life. He had been a weather officer and
didn't really have the flying experience for instrument landings. The
control room should have taken the rap, as they wouldn't let him land
where it was clear. Thule should have taken a lot of it, too for not
letting us land there. And the base in Iceland for not moving the GCA in
the 3" of snow. When you get old, you have a hard time remembering what happened 47 years ago. ha ha. I do remember that they interviewed us at the hospital and gave us a sleeping pill. When we woke up the next morning, the dining hall was closed and they wouldn't even give us coffee. We hit our flight
bags, though and got the powdered coffee out of the C-rations and made
our own. Mean, mean medics.
Adrian L. Hunter- Boom Operator
KC-97G 52-2724 flew many more missions after the crash. Photo courtesy of Col (ret) Dick Nelson.
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98th AREFS KC-97 Tail Numbers
52-2720
52-2721
52-2722
52-2724 crash landed- story above
52-2726
52-2727
52-2729
52-2731
52-2732
52-2733
52-2734
52-2736
52-2759
53-3816
