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Vought A-7 Corsair
United States Navy
Losses & Ejections

DRAFT LISTING
page last updated Wednesday, 07 September 2011 18:42

or Fred Knee's ejection after the engine quit. Believe they
were both in 1971. 

Rick Hormel (only son of Hormel Ham) died in a
departure accident in the VA-122 in about 1974 over the Owens Valley
(tried to recover but did not quite make it.)

 XO of VA-153 ejected after
hitting the ramp following a supposed engine lag. (A-7B) Cannot remember
his name but could probably find it in a cruise book.

Are we looking at
accidents only or combat losses as well? -Tom
 

CAN ANYONE PROVIDE DETAILS ??

LCDR Hal Anderson,  A7E/USS JFK/1976 or 77 during VACAPES work up. Engine failed shortly after launch. Controlled ejection and safe water entry, but pilot unable to extricate himself from parachute and new zero/zero seat mod with spreader gun. Drowned despite SAR crew actions.

LCDR Don Railsback, VA 192 A7E/CVW-11 USS America 1979 Med war at sea profile. Engine failed during low altitude high speed ingress; pilot made controlled ejection; survived

LT Doug Schultz, VA 27 A7E/squadron low altitude live ordnance CAS training at Fallon/1983. Aircraft departed during daylight popup attack; pilot ejected inverted at 1000’ AGL; survived with significant injuries.

 [Doug Schultz, an active air show pilot and former U.S. Navy Test Pilot School instructor, was killed on Tuesday, August 24 when the MiG-21 he was flying crashed in the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver Island in British Columbia.The MiG, on contract to the Canadian government and owned by Air USA of Quincy, Illinois, was performing supersonic threat missions versus a Canadian missile frigate and Canadian F-18s.] check

Air Force

based

  1966

  1967

PoW

  1968

31st May 1968

I flew on the 10 June 1968 RESCAP of LCDR Randy Ford. My logbook entry is dated 11 June but it was a middle of the night mission. Early-released POW Mark Gartley reported that Randy died from complications of a severely broken arm while in captivity before he was transported to Hanoi. Randy was shot down near Vinh.

I am still in touch with some of the VA-86 pilots from 1968 and can get details of the 21 and 25 June and 2 Sept ejections. I believe one of them was Lt. Jack Gillette but will confirm that fact.

LCDR David "Scott" Grieling apparently died in his crash on the night of 24 July 1968. Reports that he was a POW were later proven to be inaccurate.  A few years ago, a team found his crash site and saw that the ejection seat was still in the wreckage.  His 'dog tags' were reported to have been seen by an Eastern European sailor (I believe in a bar near Haiphong) but there is no evidence Scotty survived the crash. 

The 'ejection' on 2 Sept 1968 was an Air Wing staff officer who accidentally flew into the water on a night visual approach. I'm not positive but I believe his seat fired accidentally as he was cart-wheeling after impact. Most of his injuries were from him skimming the water after ejection. He survived that night but was killed a few years later in a mid-air collision over the bombing target at Vieques, Puerto Rico. I knew him and will recall his name eventually. I think it was Bob but right now I can't come up with it.

  1969

6 miles from Yuma

  1970

In 1970 a Lt. Watkins, instructor in 174 jumped out of a jet on approach to Cecil in a Thunderstorm, I believe it was also an engine failure.  The amazing thing about this one was the aircraft ended up vertical in the pine trees, nose down good shape.

  1971

DIC

4th November 1971

CONFIRM DATE

Ltjg John Pianetta, on an Instrument Bombing Derby from Lemoore to Fallon.  Thermal Shield down.  Following a level delivery in an A7-E at 10,000', he started to raise the thermal shield to go visual per the chase pilot's instructions and was inadvertently ejected over the EW range.  The aircraft, I believe NH-400, in attitude hold, continued fly  pilotless northward with enough fuel to make it into Canada... I had just taken over as the Dambuster's Safety Officer when the call came in from Fallon that the aircraft had "Crashed" and that the pilot was safely on the ground.... shortly thereafter, it was discovered that the a/c had not crashed and was still airborne.  We went to GQ as the potential was there to become an international incident if it made it into Canada. I quickly brushed up on how to send a "Flash" msg to the White House...LOL 
Because it was in attitude hold, as it passed over various mountain ridges, the a/c was buffeted and did a slight right wing down turn to the right, disappearing in the shadow of a mountain near Provo,Utah where it was assumed it had crashed when it did not reappear to Oakland Center.  A western rescue outfit initiated a search in that area, and even had witness on the mountain who claimed the a/c passed just overhead at a very low, tree-top level... so it must have crashed into the mountain.  The search went on for many days... no crash site. The squadron got a new, replacement aircraft and continued our turnaround training.  When we finally deployed in Kitty Hawk months later the a/c still had not been found; so we went to war with it.

Many months later after an extended deployment we returned to NZC, and shortly thereafter the aircraft was discovered.  It had run out of fuel and landed itself virtually intact in a level mesa... can't remember if it was in Utah or Idaho... I was the lucky Safety Officer who got to write the mishap report for Paul McCarthy. 

Our investigation found a design flaw in the non-telescoping canopy release handle in the cockpit that positioned the pilots elbow immediately above the handle when his hands reached for the thermal shield handles.  Based on the distance on the ground between where the canopy was recovered and where John landed, it was determined that John inadvertently cracked the canopy when his elbow hit the release handle, the wind took it off, the thermal shield imploded on his helmet, pulled the face curtain out of its detente and into the wind, which subsequently came out far enough to fire the seat.  As a result, that apparatus was resigned and refitted on all A-7 aircraft. . 

Later, Circa 1973, [7th February 1973] just after I departed for Bupers and the Dambusters were training for yet another deployment, that same John Pianetta was the lead of a nite two plane radar round-robin when his first-tour nugget wingman suddenly disappeared from radar and John's wing during a level turn south at altitude over Alameda. 

That plane went straight down into the roof of an apartment building; miraculously, no one was killed except the pilot... most all of the residents were at a nearby carnival and out of the building. . . "

Russ

  1972

DATE ?? ?? 1972

LT Charlie Nelson ejected out of the seat envelope; fatality

PoW

*Lt Cdr Barnett ejected from VA‑195 A‑4C 14781 USS Ticonderoga during an attack on a SAM site near  the Xuan Mai Bridge, 15 miles southwest of Hanoi in December 1966.

LT Mike Duncan, VA 87 A7B/USS Franklin Roosevelt/1972 in the med. Canopy failed during cat shot, struck vertical tail, displacing the fin several degrees and breaking hydraulic lines. Result was loss of pitch control and ejection a mile ahead of the ship; survived

PoW

RR 15-3-2000

10 November 1972

PoW

Low ceilings and reduced visibility necessitated individual attacks into the  heavily defended target area. On making individual runs into the target area  the number three aircraft saw a parachute floating down through the clouds  and heard an emergency radio beeper just prior to bomb release. A momentary  emergency radio transmission was heard saying, "I'm in the water with two  A-6s passing overhead". This was followed by 2-3 unintelligible  transmissions and then then one-way radio contact was lost.

  1973

Ltjg. Charlie Boh,  ejected I believe in Aug 82   after landing in ISO aboard CV66 America. VA-72 aircraft.

There was an ejection at Whitehouse, in the early 70’s, Cant remember the guys name and it was a weird circumstance, I want to say wings folded or tried to trap or something like that. E survived the ejection but I think he was boarded out.

I remember a JO jumping out of a jet in the Cecil Landing pattern, the Jet almost landed at Herlong field. This would have y been mid 80’s.

I know there is more that I will think of.

Stain.

FEEDBACK

Thanks to Jim Hamilton Capt, USN, (Ret) for providing further information on several of the above mishaps - in email 8th June 2011

  1974

  1975

  1976

  1977

  1978