Forum: Off-topic

Last edited by maddog2840 on Jan 13, 2006 - 03:21 PM; edited 1 time in total

vinnie wrote:

Back in the late 60s a C-130 crew chief stole a C-130 from Mildenhall and ended up crashing in the English Channel. Some say he lost control and crashed and others say he was shot down. You can find this one on the web.

Splashed into the Channel.

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Had a civ mech friend that stole a Lear (non-pilot BTW, only a few flying hours in Cessna) back in the late 80's. Flew from Newport News VA to Denver, landed at Stapleton. and then shot himself in the head when the FBI surrounded him. Despondent over breakup with girlfriend. We never figured out how he flew, navigated, and landed with so few hours. I guess flying isn't as hard as pilots make out. Wink

Micosoft Flight Simulator had a Lear didn't it?

He he. Yes - but do you know what PC's were around in the mid to late 80's?

Duh. I forgot. Actually I think my Commodore 64 had Flight Simulator 1 Doh

It's no urban legend. I was with Sgt. Meyers on a 7 day Turkey Trot from Mildenhall while I was attached to the 5th Aerial Port Squadron as a C-130E loadmaster. He stole the plane 3 days later and almost ran me off the taxi way on my way in for an airdrop the morning he stole it. He topped off the tanks trying to make it back to Langley (woman problems) which I knew first hand from all of the HF calls he made whenever we landed somewher to RON. Unfortunatley, he was headed for France and a potential "International Incident". To confirm he was shot down, 2 F-100s from RAF Lakenheath were dispatched to intercept him. A very reiiable source in the munitions squadron at Lakenheath told me they returned having spent their ammo. Do the math.

If that isn't proof, here is one more tidbit that may convince the sceptics. The USAF posthumously promoted him to 2nd Lt. with wings so his wife could collect widows benefits. How do you spell "guilt".

Anyway, Meyers had just come back from a 6-month tour in Vietnam. On our trip, he told me his pilot had trained everyone to fly the bird and land it, in the event the pilots took fire and received injuries. He was very capable of flying, since his take-off was down wind without flaps when he stole the plane.

Needless to say, they over-reacted after that and chained the nose gear strut to the static anchor with a master lock. That worked until a couple of pilots recorded late takeoffs because the chain was so tight, they couldn't undo the lock without starting up and taxiing forward enought to release the tension on the chains.

Anway, I count it a bizarre privilege to have been a part of this historical event.

Anyone know about the Army CC that stole a Huey and landed at the White House during Vietnam?

Yeah, Pfc. Robert Preston was FL National Guard. He landed it on the White House lawn, and earned himself an all expenses paid free vacation to Kansas for that stunt. BTW, Nixon was not present at the White House when the incident occurred.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_K._Preston

There's a Yahoo club on the stolen C-130 /http://groups.yahoo.com/group/637789

it was my stepfather who took the C130, and there was no posthumous promotions for widows [Link pending approval] no 2nd lt. up [Link pending approval] We are still trying to find out 40 yrs later if he was shot down? We do think it was a justiafiable shoot down but are still trying to get some closure on this. thanks,
Henry Ayer

I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall when Sgt Meyers stole the C-130 and I can assure you what "pbrodeur" says about the plane being shot down is true. I don't know about the posthumous promotions, but everything else is exactly the way I remember it.

The plane was eventually recovered and returned to Mildenhall on covered flatbed trucks. The plane remained there at the base guarded for a few weeks before being removed. A Military Police friend of mine said the plane was absolutely shot [Link pending approval] I don't recall his name as its been so long ago.

Another good friend of mine stationed at Lakenheath was one of the munitions loaders who help load the 2 F-100s. He told me the pilots had used ALL of their ammo before returning to base. His name is Sgt Jim Lewsadder.

The Air Force will never admit to shooting down one of their own regardless of how justafiable it may have been. I hope this information is helpful.

I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall in the 513 SPSq. That day we had booked him in the brig for drunk and disorderly. He had been arrested by the Bobbie's and brought back to the [Link pending approval] After booking, we notified his First Sergeant who then sign him out of the brig and confined him to the barracks. Later the Sgt took the alert truck and drove out to the aircraft, did a warm up and began to taxi the aircraft. There was a mix up from the tower notifying us as to whether it was an authorized taxi or not. Myself and another SP were in a patrol vehicle near the end of the runway and was finally told to block his take off, but by then it was too late. When he did lift off, he nearly took the top of our vehicle off. Then he barely cleared Moms woods as the aircraft stalled while making its turn. RAF Lakenheath was alerted and fighters were sent after him. And yes, later I did see parts of the aircraft with holes blown through it on a flat bed. We were told that because he was headed in the direction of France and would run out of fuel, it was in the best interest to take him down, rather than risk the lives of many innocent people. Of course I was not privy to all the details, and this is a condensed version of what I was witness to. And yes, he was trying to go home.

Henry Ayer,

Sorry to hear of your loss. It sounds like you've got some answers to your reply; I hope you've been able to see these new replies. It sounds like these two gents gave you some solid leads if you feel the need to explore the issue more. I hope your family is finally able to put the closure on this tragedy.

I was drinking with him that night at the Bird in Hand and then I took back to the barracks. I then was got out of bed the next day to go looking for him above the english channel in the a c-47. We found the oil slick and with props and tires but we did not see any sign of him. I was stationed at Mildenhall from 1966-69. This happened right after I was transferred from the Security Police to the Camron squadrron.

I know this is an old thread, but I just joined and found it. I was stationed at RAF Alconbury (I'm guessing that we were 50-70 miles from Mildenhall) when this event happened. Our aircraft were up in the air all day "looking" for the missing aircraft. Including after the time the AF later reported that the plane had crashed.

The day of the incident, most of us assumed that the plane had been shot down because it would make little sense to do anything else. Not that we agreed with it, but because we couldn't imagine the powers that be tolerating something that big in the air with no control over it.

Our crew chiefs were later told that the plane had been shot down because it was headed for France, and would have caused an international incident had it flown into their air space, or worse yet, crashed there (note that the [Link pending approval] military had been kicked out of France a couple of years earlier for political reasons, and relations between the two countries were pretty poor at the time). And at that meeting the crew chiefs were told that if they ever stole a plane, they would be shot down too (We had a couple of C-47's, a T-39, and around 40 RF-4C's). The crew chiefs weren't supposed to tell anyone, but word got around (I was in avionics, and heard the story from multiple crew chiefs. All said about the same thing)

I found myself assuming that the word got out without anyone being reprimanded because the AF wanted everyone on the base to know the consequences of such actions, but that they couldn't very well make it official policy without causing an uproar. That is just my opinion, though.

Forum: Off-topic

Stolen C-130 Shot Down?