USAF accident/incident report
Read the official accident report about 69-6508 landing in Clinton County Airport.
When he reached the top of the incline he noted the airport beacon going green --- white --- green --- white. He knew that this was the designation for a civil airport and since Clinton County was the only airfield near Plattsburgh he then knew exactly where he was. He proceeded across the airfield to the terminal, which was closed, and found a telephone booth. Directly in front to this booth was a car containing a young couple. He couldn't see them well as the windows were all steamed up. Reaching in his pocket he discovered that he had two quarters. Dropping a quarter in the coin slot he dialed 0. When the operator answered, he identified himself and asked that she dial the Command Post at Plattsburgh. She informed him that he could dial the number himself. He responded that his hands were still shaking too damn bad and would she just dial it!! The phone in the CP was answered by the NCO Controller who announced that he was unable to talk due to an aircraft emergency and broke the connection. The nav then deposited his last remaining coin and dialed the CP. (At this point the young couple left the area) The same controller answered and before he could break the connection again the nav informed him that if he broke the connection again he would personally walk back to Plattsburgh and shoot him! When the situation was explained a vast contingent departed Plattsburgh AFB for Clinton County".
Soon, security police and base officials arrived and a UH-1N rescue helicopter transported the crew back to PAFB while base personnel tried to figure out what to do with the aircraft. State Police and Sheriff's deputies cordoned the area off to civilians and base personnel set up floodlights to begin their inspection. Fuel was removed from the aircraft at the scene as PAFB fire trucks stood by.and guards from the base were stationed around the FB until it could be moved. The following Wednesday morning, Oct.4, seven Air Force vehicles, five New York State Police cars, a New York State Electric and Gas truck and a New York Telephone truck escorted the crippled FB-111A back to base. With the wings folded back, the FB was 34 feet wide, making its route home a tricky one. The work crew took Route 3 to Military Turnpike, north on the turnpike to Route 374, east on 374 to Exit 38 of the Northway, south on the Northway to Exit 36 and back to base. The entire operations took four and a half hours. The gas and telephone trucks traveled ahead of the caravan, lifting power and phone lines. Several signs and reflectors had to be cut down to allow clearance, but a base welding team followed the convoy and restored each one. State Police closed off the Northway to civilian traffic one intersection at a time while the convoy moved at walking speed until it reached the Northway. It then picked up speed to 5 miles per hour.Anyone familiar with the Plattsburgh area and who has flown in or out of the County Airport knows how close the two airstrips are. A detailed notice to private pilots in the area was released in August 1971 by the Wing safety office. The notice explained in details that the increased numbers of sorties to be flown by the FB-111A from Plattsburgh AFB would necessitate greater care by private pilots in the area. An estimated 17 sorties was to be flown daily by FB-111s beginning in September. Plattsburgh AFB's control zone extended five miles on each side of the base's flightline, and up to an altitude of 3,000 feet above the ground.
Any aircraft must technically (according to FAA regulations) obtain permission and maintain radio contact with the base's control tower to fly into that zone. The Clinton County Airport, used by both private and commercial aircraft, is within the five-miles radius. Flights, however, can land at the county airport without radio contacts with the base tower by restricting themselves to altitudes below those flown by military aircraft her. Private aircraft can land at Clinton County if they are not equipped with radio. Approaches to the municipal airport must be made from the west, unless permission is obtained to cross over Plattsburgh AFB. Patterns for aircraft landing on the base are made to the west, over the county airport, at altitudes above those flown by non-military aircraft. The FB-111s will make patterns for landing on Runway 35 (350 degrees to the north) or 17 (170 degrees to the south) over and to the west of the municipal airport at altitudes of 1,800 to 2,300 feet above sea level (ASL).. Private aircraft landing at Clinton County Airport make patterns below 1,800 feet. Military aircraft may fly instrument pattern for the base over Lake Champlain when followed by Burlington based radar and Plattsburgh Ground Control Approach (GCA). This, usually, at 3,500 ASL. Visual landings are made to the west, however. FB-111 patterns will parallel the runway three to four miles out and approach the landing to the north or south from seven to eight miles. The aircraft may also begin descending for straight-in landings anywhere from 10 to 15 miles out. The new aircraft and increased number of sorties will require special visual attention by private pilots, since the FB-111A is smaller than either the KC-135 Stratotanker or the B-52 Stratofortress. The base directs flight patterns to the west of the base, and therefore over the municipal airport, to keep the aircraft from flying over the populated areas of town. The areas of town that aircraft do fly over on straight-in approaches were in most cases populated after the flightline was built. Another reason for their westerly patterns is to direct the jet aircraft here away from pattern flown by large aircraft landing at Burlington International Airport in Vermont, just across the lake. FB-111A aircraft will average about 300 knotts for landing preparations despite their capability for much faster speeds.
Major Ed MacNeil (Ret.) was a pilot with the 715th BMS at Pease AFB and flew with Capt. Andrew Z.Stepniewski during a year following this incident.
Read the official accident report about 69-6508 landing in Clinton County Airport.
INTRODUCTION by Charlie Searock, Lt.General, USAF (Ret.)November 1977. I'll never forget it. There I was sitting fat, dumb and happy as the 393rd Bomb Squadron Commander. What a job! Flying the FB, "leading" 48 or so hand picked warriors - all highly educated, highly motivated, clearly destined to be General Officers - when the phone rang and I was invited to come see the 509th Bomb Wing Commander, Colonel Guy Hecker. I didn't know that I or any of my charges had done anything wrong so off I went whistling a merry tune to see my boss."Have a seat Searock", said God. You see, all Wing Commanders in those days had that kind of power. "You know the trouble with you ops guys is that you never really get a chance to fail. You have always succeeded and in order for you to become the commander I think you could be, you need to learn how to fail. Monday (this was Thursday) you are going to exchange commands with Steve Croker and become the 509th OMS Commander. (Actually Croker ended up with the 715th but that's another story). I wasn't sure I was hearing this correctly. My first reaction was, "Did I do something wrong?" But he convinced me - like I had a choice - that that was the correct career move for me. So Monday came, I assumed command and within 15 minutes of saying so, I was informed - while standing with a beer in my hand - that I had a "drunk on duty" waiting in my office. No joke, this guy was fall-out-of-the-chair drunk. Croker laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall to his knees. As my mind raced as to what I was expected to do, he said, "Here, you're going to need this." as he handed me a copy of the Miranda Rights. And so my love affair with "maintainers" began.Through the remainder of my career, 15 years, I was dipped deep into the logistics world. At times I was sure I was going to drown - like the time I got a call from Ray O'Mara, the then Assistant DCM at Plattsburgh, that we had just lost two more flap vanes. Some of you will remember those pesty little strips that kept falling off. On the phone, I grounded the Plattsburgh FB-111 fleet. Boy, did the stuff hit the fan. BUT no one ungrounded them and I was determined to fix the problem before we killed someone. We fixed the problem by finding a "maintainer" literally in-processing from Upper Heyford. He was a FMS flight control "expert" and it turned out he truly was. We actually pulled him out of the in-processing briefing and sent him to the hangar. There he stayed and as he was able to turn out airplanes, we flew airplanes. And we never lost another flap vane.This was but one example of the dozens of times I personally witnessed the fortunes of the 509th and the 380th riding on the shoulders of a few, dedicated NCOs and in many cases some intelligent, resourceful young airman. They made it happen. From the absolutely dreadful parts shortage problems of the late 70s through the early 80s. And right along with the maintainers were the supply guys who busted butt finding parts, the transporters who made the "White River Junction" supply system work, the fuels guys who were always undermanned but got the job done anyway and hundreds of other loggies who took their jobs seriously and used every ounce of creativity they had to provide a credible deterrent system.There are hundreds of war stories. Many of you who will read this will recall with great clarity the truly inspiring and funny ones. Some of them were not so funny and I can recall them with great clarity too. But in the face of it all, the "maintainers" persevered. They did so not because they had no choice, but because the FB world was a different world. It drew you in. It made you feel part of something special. It was a challenge that called on the best of everything each of us had to offer. And because of that, I think it was for many of us, our finest hour.August 1999.
The Organizational Maintenance Squadron: The mission of the OMS was to provide organizational level maintenance and inspections on the Wing's FB-111A and KC-135s aircraft. The squadron was divided into five major branches under the direction of OMS Maintenance Supervision. These were Alert Force Branch, Transient Maintenance Branch, FB-111 Flight-line/Inspection Branch, KC-135 Flightline/Inspection Branch and Support Equipment Branch.The Alert Force provided direct maintenance support, 24 hours a day, to the Wing's FB-111 and KC-135 ground alert aircraft tasked under the Single Integrated Operation Plan. Transient Maintenance Branch was responsible for launching and recovering all visiting aircraft arriving or departing the base. The largest in the OMS were the FB-111 and KC-135 Flightline/Inspection Branches providing daily launch, recovery, flight-line inspections and phase inspections of all assigned aircraft. This is where the individual aircraft crew chiefs were assigned as well as flight line expediters, line chiefs, Basic Post Flight Inspection (BPO) Teams and Phase Inspection Teams so critical to the success of the Wing's operational mission. The Support Equipment Branch and Organizational Tool Room completed the squadron's operational sections. This branch was responsible for all non-powered Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE), special and general purpose tools and other required aircraft support equipment.The Inspection Branch, aka Phase, was transferred to the FMS during a SAC maintenance realignment. Called a Readiness Oriented logistics System (ROLS), this was implemented between 1985 and 1988.
The Avionics Maintenance Squadron: The mission of the AMS was to perform quality electronic maintenance on assigned aircraft systems and associated aerospace ground equipment in order to maintain the Wing's capability for long-range bombardment and effective air-refueling operations. The squadron was assigned to the Deputy Commander for Maintenance (DCM) and included a staff element, Flightline Maintenance Branch, Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory, Aircrew Training Devices, Avionics Shop Maintenance and Avionics Systems Branch. The FB-111 avionics maintenance Flightline Maintenance Branch accomplished on-equipment maintenance on the avionics systems installed in the FB-111 weapons system. The branch was divided in three shops; Weapons Control-Inertial Navigation, Automatic Flight Control-Instrument and Communications-Navigation Penetration Aids. The Weapons Control-Inertial Navigation shop maintained the avionics system that integrated together and formed the backbone of the FB-111's ability to penetrate enemy territory, day or night, regardless of the weather and deliver its ordnance on the mark. The Automatic Flight Control-Instrument shop maintained the auto-pilot, trim systems and all instrument systems of the FB-111A. The Communications-Navigation Penetration Aids shop accomplished such things as repairing and maintaining the ARC-123 HF, ARC-109 (later ARC-164) UHF radios, AIC-25 Intercom, APX-64 IFF, ARN-58 ILS, ARN-84 TACAN, APX-78 Beacon Transponder, ALE-28 Chaff and Flare dispenser, APS-109 (later ALR-62) Radar Homing and Warning (RHAWS), ALQ-94 and ALQ-137 Track Breaker ECM, AAR-34 Infrared Receiving. As well as the Emergency Beacon Radio Transponder and Satellite Communications system. On the FB-111's systems, they troubleshooted the systems to find a specific bad part, also known as a Line Replaceable Unit.The Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory (PMEL) provided maintenance calibration and certification of test equipment. The Aircrew Training Devices Branch provided aircrew training for FB-111 flight crews upgrading to mission ready and to KC-135 pilots for instrument proficiency and emergency procedures.The FB-111 Avionics Shop Maintenance Branch accomplished on-equipment maintenance on FB-111 avionics systems and associated avionics aerospace ground equipment (AGE). This branch was divided in three shops; Avionics AGE, Automatic Test Stations and Manual Test Stations. Avionics AGE accomplished maintenance, calibration and certification on FB-111 avionics aerospace ground equipment. Automatic and Manual Test Station shops performed intermediate level maintenance on navigation flight and weapons control line replaceable units using computer controlled automatic, semi-automatic and manual test stations. Technicians assigned to AMS had all received extensive electronic technical and proficiency training and were highly skilled.
The Munitions Maintenance Squadron: The mission of the MMS was to 'provide reliable munitions for munitions capable aircraft', indicating there was more to MMS that attaching objects to a wing or a bomb bay. The MMS Commander was supported by four sections. They are Munition Accountability Supply, Administration, Training and Supervision. Supervision was by far the largest of these sections and was responsible for most of the work accomplished for the munitions and the aircraft. The Supervision section contained five branches which included Control, Analysis, Load Standardization Crew, Munitions Services Branch and the Integrated Munitions Maintenance and Storage Branch.One section that was administratively a part of the MMS at Plattsburgh AFB was the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Section, responsible for an area beyond the realm of the base. Their area of responsibility encompassed the Northeastern section of the United States where they took care of potentially hazardous situations.On October 1, 1972, the 40th MMS and 41st MMS from Plattsburgh and Pease rescpectively were inactivated and activated the next day as the 380th MMS and 509th MMS. This action was part of a SAC-wide move to give munitions maintenance squadrons the same numerical designation as the wing to which it is assigned.
The Field Maintenance Squadron: The FMS was a 'specialist squadron' that encompassed the most diverse number of AFSCs that could possibly be formed into a squadron. FMS was divided in four branches and a Maintenance Supervision Section and Administrative support elements. The largest branch, Aerospace Systems Branch was the most diverse with seven shops doing everything from changing tires to handling explosive panels in the FB-111A. The Propulsion Branch was the second largest in the FMS and maintained million dollars worth of FB-111 engines. FMS's Fabrication Branch had six shops dealing with everything from machining parts to parachutes to ultra-sonics and x-ray. Their reputation for "painting it, building it, fixing it"-whatever it might be- was well justified. The Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) Branch maintained over 300 pieces of powered equipment used to support overall aircraft operations.In effect, the Field Maintenance Squadron was responsible for the airframes, aircraft systems and the engines of the FB-111A and KC-135s. The squadron was also looking after the FB-111 and KC-135's three types of phases.