B-66 Production and Attrition 4

Submitted by Herb Langford

1. In the list of RB-66 Airmen killed, of those that were stationed at RAF Bruntingthorpe, England, I add the following information from memory. Unfortunately, I do not have your list of names before me, but, can be more specific if asked.

1. Crash at RAF Bruntingthorpe. the Pilot was Lt. Coad, Navigator Lt. Boone. I do not know the Gunners name at this point. The mission was the usual "UK Round Robin". Coad's regular Navigator, Lt. Robbie Robinson had a sick child and Coad came through the BOQ looking for a Navigator. Boone was in his room and volunteered. The cause was an erroneous altimeter setting and they landed short of the field. I was a new roommate of Boone and knew him only one day. His friend, Lt. Al Seda, took care of the arrangements.

2. Another crash, earlier took place but all ejected safely. I know the navigator was Lt. Connie Costan. The cause was engine failure.

3. There was a crash landing perfectly performed by Captain Lemay. The only casualty was a bowled over firefighter as the crew ran from the plane.

4. The Final crash was during the Royal Flush competition when the RB-66 crashed in the North Sea during the night photo competition. The Pilot was Capt Armani. There were two navigators aboard, Capt Harvy and Lt Whitley. There was little found of the aircraft which crashed at speed. The assumption was the pilot suffered vertigo in the highly competitive effort.

Of further interest. RAF Bruntingthorp is now a museum of Cold War Aircraft. They have the only working version of the Vulcan which was used in the James Bond Movie. They have a B-47, which was an aircraft that flew out of Bruntingthorpe along with Hawker Hunters etc. They have little or no record of the RB-66 which was there for 3 years. If a plane could be donated / flown there, it would be a great memorial, etc. I am sure they would welcome any input about the RB-66.

I was the gunner on Dodd's aircraft the day of the accident. As was the usual when going to Bermuda, I was relegated to the left seat in the back compartment and the weather officer was in my front seat. We were powered up and ready to release the brakes when the second aircraft swung around to line up in take off position. I remember that the pilot in the aircraft was a 62 year old LTC whose name I don't recall. As he was the ranking officer he expressed the desire to sit in the pilots seat. He was not supposed to be the pilot but was afforded the courtesy because of his rank. The tip of his left wing hit the underside of out right wing and as a result of the forward thrust of our engines and that strike, our main gear collapsed and our nose gear folded under. The instant shock of falling straight down caused me to try to get out of my seat without having first unbuckled. I then realized my mistake and unbuckled and went to the ladder in order to exit the aircraft. The weather tech was having trouble pushing up the hatch. I stepped over him and hit the hatch and it flew some distance. I went up the ladder over the tech who did not seem to be in much of a hurry. The engines were still running at 100% when I ran a safe distance, I believe about 500 yards. I looked around and the engines had been shut down. Eventually, the crew members in the front came out the top hatches in what, to me, seemed to not be in any hurry. I still had some pictures of the aircraft. I did unload the luggage and one of the pictures shows me wheeling someone's golf cart down the wing.

I believe the weather "officer" was TSGT Iverson. I believe the same LTC was the pilot involved in the incident above. They had a flame out at cruising altitude, a partial restart at ten thousand and another flameout. Both weather people got out but I believe only the navigator got out up front. The cause of the flameout was unknown. Iverson used his flashlight to check his parachute canopy. A passing airliner saw the parachute even though it was at night. Iverson was able to get in his life raft and was picked up the following morning by a cargo ship.

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