ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 185456
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| Date: | Friday 15 October 1971 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Grumman A-6A Intruder |
| Owner/operator: | VA-42, US Navy |
| Registration: | 151563 |
| MSN: | I-46 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | 15 miles S of NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, VA (NTU/KNTU) |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo. 151563, of VA-42,crashed on a maintenance test flight out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, suffers failure of the drogue chute gun in the pilot's ejection seat, pulling the two ejection seat cables and ejecting Lt. Dalton C. Wright. The bombardier-navigator, Lt. John W. Adair, with no pilot in the aircraft, is forced to eject. Jet comes down 15 miles from Oceana. The Navy investigation later determines that five or six flight accidents and one hangar accident may have been caused by the same problem.
According to an eyewitness testimony from one of the two crew:
"My name is Dalton Wright COL (ret) and I was the pilot, and John Adair Rear Admiral (ret) was the B/N. It was a maintenance test flight code 1L1. The plane was in level flight at 10,000 feet traveling at approximately 250 Knots IAS. The Seat was a Martin-Baker GRU type. The accident was caused when the pilot’s seat inadvertently ejected the pilot.
The post crash inspection of the seat revealed the drogue gun had inadvertently fired, which caused the drogue chute rigging located on the top of the seat to pull the large and small cables that are connected to the face curtain and alternate ejection handles. FYI, because the drogue was damaged the pilot had to deploy the chute manually. The B/N, Lt John Adair successfully ejected".
The above eyewitness testimony also confirms that the accident happened on October 15 1971 and NOT November 15 1971 as has often been reported.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Grumman_A-6_Intruder#1971
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20171103001143/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/aircraft_by_type/a6_prowler.htm
3. http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries19.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Mar-2016 21:22 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
| 15-Mar-2016 21:37 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Source] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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