ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 333457
| Date: | Thursday 9 November 1961 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Lockheed P2V-7LP Neptune |
| Owner/operator: | United States Navy |
| Registration: | 140439 |
| MSN: | 726-7098 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 9 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Wilkins Station -
 Antarctica
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Wilkins Runway (YWKS) |
| McMurdo Station Ice Runway (NZIR) |
A P2V-7LP Neptune crashed on takeoff from Wilkins Station, Antarctica, where it had refuelled en route back to McMurdo Station. in support of Operation Deep Freeze 1962. Four aircrew and one passenger were killed, with four aircrew surviving. Per en eyewitness report:
"The landing had been so violently rough that it had broken loose the 400 gal internal tank in the bomb bay and the 4" filler pipe was spewing out raw fuel running down the bottom of the plane on take off. At the ignition of the JATO on the t/o run, it acted like a Roman Candle. With the burning of the fiberglass tail cone, all of the acrid smoke was drawn right up to the cockpit and the pilots were blinded. They tried to return to the field and just couldn't make it. The pilot managed to level the wings before they hit and that saved some of the guys."
Sources:
US Navy and US Marine Corps Aircraft Serial Numbers and Bureau Numbers--1911 to Present / Joe Baugher
Passauer Neue Presse 11 November 1961, p.4
vaq34.com
vpnavy.com
Revision history:
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