ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 158454
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| Date: | Tuesday 1 November 1960 |
| Time: | 18:45 |
| Type: |  Convair F-106B Delta Dart |
| Owner/operator: | United States Air Force (USAF) |
| Registration: | 57-2525 |
| MSN: | 8-27-19 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Langley AFB, VA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Andrews AFB, Maryland |
| Langley AFB, Virginia | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
I witnessed the F106B 57-2525 crash at Langley AFB in 1960 while stationed as an Air Force GCA Radar Technician in the 1913th Communications Squadron. The F106B set down just outside the Langley back gate with the front end, without the wings, skidding up to the main runway and into a ditch. Another GCA radar technician and I were in a jeep driving around the west end of the main runway on our way to the Control Tower. We were about 200 feet away when the F106B stopped in the ditch. We did not see what had happened at the back gate. That end of the main runway was obscured by fog at the time. Both crewmembers got out and started to put out a small fire below the cockpit by throwing sand on it. We got out to help but fire trucks soon arrived and we left on our way to the Control Tower. As we neared the back gate, we ran into base perimeter fencing and debris pulled into the road by the crash. The back gate guard shack had also been pulled down by the attached perimeter fence.
The 1913th Comm. Sqdn, Langley Control Tower Operators said that the F106B had come in unexpectedly from Andrews AFB. They said it came in low over the clear cross-runway wagging its wings indicating “Comm Out”. The Tower then gave it the green light to land. The tower operators said that the F106B “climbed out and came around to land on the wrong runway”. It tried to land on the west end of the fogged in main runway and crashed. It was reported at the time that the F106 hit some power lines in a trailer court off base and then sat down near the back gate.
This report is taken from a memo made over ten years ago when I could find no record of the Langley F106B crash. This is a correction to other reports stating that F106B 57-2525 crashed at Andrews AFB. An extract of the 1960 Langley AFB F106B Accident Report can now be seen at: https://www.f-106deltadart.com/accident-reports/572525.pdf
I often wondered whether the NASA Mercury Seven astronauts who were training at Langley at the time might have flown F106B 57-2525. NASA astronauts kept up their flying expertise and flew a number of aircraft. Most had been test pilots and flew just about anything available at any time. Langley had F106s at the time (I took a ride in Langley’s F106 Trainer). There is a photo of the Mercury Seven in front of F106B 59-0158 with Langley’s B-57 is in the background. F106B 59-0158 was sent to the 48th FIS at Langley on 25 October 1960, just six days before the 1 November 57-2525 crash.
Sources:
C.R. Hale
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Aug-2013 08:10 | Uli Elch | Added |
| 18-Aug-2013 08:30 | Uli Elch | Updated [Date, Registration, Cn, Location, Country, Phase, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 12-Aug-2020 06:21 | Langley GCA | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 22-Aug-2020 17:50 | LangleyGCA | Updated [Time, Narrative] |
| 08-Feb-2022 09:22 | TB | Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Narrative] |
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