ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 115299
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| Date: | Wednesday 8 March 1950 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Republic F-84C Thunderjet |
| Owner/operator: | 59th FS, 33rd FG, USAF |
| Registration: | 47-1506 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Sea off Onset Bay, 15 Miles West of Otis AFB, Cape Cod, MA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Otis AFB, Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Massachusetts (FMH/KFMH) |
| Otis AFB, Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Massachusetts | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
Republic P-84C-6-RE Thunderjet 47-1506, 59th FS, 33rd FG, USAF: Written off (damaged beyond repair) March 8 1950 when crashed into the sea near Onset Bay, 15 miles west of Otis AFB, Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Pilot - 2nd Lt William M Guinther USAF (AO-1908903) - bailed out due to engine failure. According to a published source (see link #5) which seems to have the date wrong (March 12 not March 8}:
"ON MARCH 12TH, 1950" [sic], "A 23-year-old Air Force 2nd Lieutenant named William M. Guinther found himself in a tricky situation. He had just flown out of Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and his engine started sputtering. After a few minutes, it died completely.
Luckily, the young pilot thought fast. “Guinther pushed the ‘panic button,’ was ejected, cockpit and all, from the plane, and ‘chuted down onto a cranberry bog,” the Pottstown Mercury reported the next day. “The plane crashed into the sea.
By the time the U.S. entered the Korean War, in 1950, new planes were in play, equipped with brand new panic possibilities. F-84 Thunderjets had a button that jettisoned the “tip tanks”—extra fuel tanks held on the ends of the wings—in case the plane had trouble flying or taking off. Some models had controls that would shoot extinguishing fluid into a flaming engine, or that would deploy ejector seats like Guinther’s. And almost all planes had “feathering buttons,” which reconfigured the propellers into a more aerodynamic shape in case of engine failure. According to Jackson, all of these were referred to as “panic buttons.”
Sources:
1. http://forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/F-84.html
2. https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1946.html
3. https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/rptAF55.asp?RecID=3130
4. http://www.accident-report.com/Yearly/1950/5003.html
5. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-first-people-to-push-the-panic-button-were-korean-war-pilots
6. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/panic-button-originated-korean-war.html?chrome=1
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59th_Test_and_Evaluation_Squadron#Air_Defense_Command
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Air_National_Guard_Base
Revision history:
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