Tragic Air Collision, June 29th 1964.
Courtesy of Bermuda Sun. Photo supplied by others.
The Memorial Service was held on June 29th, 2014 at St. Peter's Church, followed by a visit by boat to the location of the crash. A wreath was placed in the ocean there.
Bill Adams assisted in pinpointing the location of the site, based on his memory of that day 50 years before.
See the report of the event here.
Bill Adams assisted in pinpointing the location of the site, based on his memory of that day 50 years before.
See the report of the event here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Posted July 20th 2014 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Latest Report.
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The Latest Report (June 12th 2014)
Fifty years ago, on June 29th, 1964, two US Air Force planes collided in mid-air somewhere off the South Shore near Castle Harbour (exact location is not, at this time, precisely known). The planes were on a training mission for NASA, back in the days when the returning astronauts landed in the ocean (inside the space capsule!), and were picked up by a nearby surface vessel. In the very early stages of the manned space program, it was decided that as soon as the capsule had splashed down, divers would be dropped by parachute as close to the capsule as possible, to ensure that all was well on board, while awaiting the arrival of the surface craft. (Scott Carpenter in Aroura (3 orbits) overshot his landing point by approx. 200 miles, but the divers were able to reach him within minutes, proving the worth of the decision.) The June 1964 mission off Bermuda was in preparation for the upcoming Gemini Space program, where it had been decided that a floatation collar would be placed around the capsule, presumably to prevent it sinking. There were 2 planes flying side by side, one to drop the divers, and the other to photograph the event. The photographing plane flew slightly behind and below the drop plane, in order to get the best view. The planes flew an oval flight path, (like a running track) with the drop zone midway along one of the straight sides. No-one knows for sure exactly what happened, but the most widely accepted suggestion is that the pilot of the photographing plane suffered a heart attack, and lost control of the plane, inadvertently steering it into the other. This happened ‘quite some distance away’ from the drop zone, where several Air Force boats were located. SOFAR, too, was conducting an operation that day, ‘quite some distance away’ from the NASA mission drop zone. We were using T-Boat, and the tracking stations at Mount Hill, Paynters Hill and Gibbs Hill. Our operation ended quite abruptly, and T-Boat headed off in the direction of the near-by crash site, and was the first on the scene, not many minutes later. I do not recall exactly what part T-Boat played in the rescue effort. I was at Gibbs Hill tracking station that day, and we were instructed to take a ‘mark’ on the major wreckage site, and then ‘stand down’. There will be a memorial service and re-union in Bermuda on the weekend of June 26th to 29th for the families and friends who lost loved ones that day. Part of this re-union will be the laying of a wreath in the ocean at the location of the wreckage, and the (planned) placing of a capsule on the ocean floor at the site of the major piece of wreckage, by local deep-diver Graham Maddocks. The problem is that there is no record of the exact location(s) of the wreckage. It is such a pity that our data from the tracking stations has been ‘lost over time’. Posted June 12th 2014. |
Late Breaking News.
Click here for other Links, Photos & Video. Since writing the article (opposite), there been some further developments. I did not want to miss the approaching Memorial and Re-union Weekend, on June 26th. Following are the things that have happened recently, that can be interleaved with the main article. Bill Adams, Captain of T-Boat, has offered to give his opinion on the location of the wreckage, based on his memory of the day, and the operation that SOFAR was undertaking. I asked Bill Adams’ daughter, Pegi, if she would broach the subject of the tragedy with Bill, and she reported back :- “He says the T-Boat was working in 1,000 fathoms of water. They had been out for a few hours that day and both those planes had been flying around and making regular passes over them with parachutists jumping periodically. Dad says it was a lovely clear day with pretty much no swell. He didn’t actually see the two planes collide as at that time he was distracted by what looked like “some sticks” on the horizon which as he heard the crash, he realized was a tall ship. He says he wouldn’t be surprised if the pilots had been distracted by the same thing but, of course, he can’t know that. He thinks the planes ended up in around 300 fathoms of water but says if he had a chart of Bermuda (the HO5723), he’d be better able to pinpoint the location. Says the T-Boat was at 180 degrees from St. David’s Lighthouse and the plane line was on a variance NNE of them. When he realized they’d collided, he radioed the Coast Guard. They verified the crash and called him back and asked the T-Boat to move to the collision area and take control until a cutter could reach there. When they got there in about 5 minutes, he says they found another small boat there who had been picking up the various parachutists during the day. He thinks there were about 8 on board and he told them to head in while T-Boat awaited the cutter at the scene. He doesn’t think they hauled in any debris but is a bit fuzzy on that. Once the cutter reached them, says T-Boat headed back in. Not really a lot of info, sorry! Pegi.” I relayed this info to Graham Maddocks at Triangle Diving, and he was most grateful for it, and said he would be contacting Bill the next day. Links, Photos & Video |