ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 82555
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| Date: | Wednesday 8 February 1978 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II |
| Owner/operator: | VF-121, US Navy |
| Registration: | 153781 |
| MSN: | 1852 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | USS Coral Sea (CV-43), off the coast of California -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | NAS Miramar (KNKX) |
| USS Coral Sea (CV-43) off California | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II US Navy Bu Aer No 153781 'NL' of VF-191 SATAN'S KITTENS, Commanding Officer's airplane on the USS Coral Sea (CV-43). Crashed and destroyed on night of February 7-8 1978.
Per eyewitness report: "the F-4 crash that happened the night of 7-8 February 1978 when the Coral Sea was operating in the southern California operating area during a sea period from 31 January 1978 to 17 February 1978. The ship was conducting carrier qualifications for the west coast replacement squadrons and for the basic training command squadrons while the USS Lexington was in restricted availability.
That night a very fiery accident occurred when a VF-121 F-4J landed and broke its main wing spar in half during recovery. During the run out the flames from the ruptured center line drop tank ignited spreading flames in front of the wings which caused the RIO to eject but the pilot** was unaware of the flames and turned his head to see why the RIO ejected and wasn't in the tucked position when his own seat ejected and he suffered a broken neck and died while they recovered the RIO uninjured.
The flames burned for 17 minutes with the crash crew unaware that the engineering department had emptied all the AFFT (foam) tanks before going on our very last sea period operating aircraft for training because the ship was going to Bremerton, Washington for a 11 month yard period after that sea period."
**Pilot killed was Lt. T.E.Dewald
Sources:
http://web.archive.org/web/20141204110553/http://www.usscoralsea.net/pages/mishaps2.php
http://www.usscoralsea.net/images/cv431978f4crashwh11.jpg
http://www.gonavy.jp/bbs2-f4f.html
http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries19.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20170421194139/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/PROJECT/YEAR_Pages/1978.htm#feb
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Nov-2010 11:55 | ASN archive | Added |
| 09-Feb-2013 21:11 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Feb-2013 21:23 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 18-Aug-2013 17:59 | Uli Elch | Updated [Aircraft type, Departure airport] |
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