Friday, March 08, 2019

in January 1963 a B52 was damaged by storms winds so strong it caused a structural failure in the 40 foot tall tail, and was forced to crash, from 500 feet altitude... for some reason the Air Force didn't clean up the pieces, and 56 years later, the pieces are still there


A grader operator on a remote woods road witnessed the final turn of the Stratofortress and saw a black smoke cloud after impact. Eighty rescuers from the Maine State Police,  Fish and Game Department, Civil Air Patrol, as well as Air Force units from Dow Air Force Base and others from New Hampshire and Massachusetts along with other volunteers, went to work.

Search aircraft were on the scene, but they searched too far south and east to locate the wreckage before nightfall.

After the crash site was located the next day, plows from Greenville cleared 10 miles of road of snow drifts up to 15 feet deep. The rescuers had to use snowshoes, dog sleds and snowmobiles to cover the remaining mile to the crash site. At 11 a.m. the two survivors were airlifted to a hospital by a helicopter.

The pilot, Dan Bulli, had in his time in the Air Force, survived crashes in this B 52, a B 24, and a B 26

The remnants of this crash lie at the end of a tree-lined road only fifteen minutes from the town of Greenville. Lily Bay Road on the southern shore of Moosehead Lake intersects with an easy-to-miss turnoff marked with a small sign that reads: Prong Pong Road which about 8 miles later turns into logging roads that head up to Elephant Mountain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Elephant_Mountain_B-52_crash



I recommend that you set the speed of the video to 2x

Some of the remains, that aren't already in private collections, such as the engine and the navigator's ejection seat at the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club Clubhouse in Greenville, of 53–0406 are still at the crash site, owned by Plum Creek Timber Co.

The 1½-mile no-salvage and no-harvesting zone created by Scott Paper years ago and maintained today by Plum Creek, isn't a govt set zone, and no one seems to have paid attention to it when getting the engines, hatches, windows, and electronic equipment. Frankly, there isn't anything left that is portable, fascinating, and recognizable. Notice you see no gauges, switches, panels, or interior pieces like seats, chairs, handles, etc. In fact, 2 companies got salvage rights from the govt. What you see left here is what they couldn't find worth the trouble to clean up for aluminum recycle prices

The plane’s stabilizer landed 1½ miles from the other wreckage and remains there.

In the late 1970s, a retired military pilot and president of the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club initiated the annual memorial snowmobile ride in honor of those aboard the B-52. The Maine Air National Guard, the American Legion, the Civil Air Patrol, Maine Warden Service and members of the snowmobile club bring a color guard, wreath, and play Taps in an annual ceremony


In 2011, a Maine Forest Service employee found an ejection seat, it is most likely the pilot's seat, from the aircraft near an overgrown logging road while hunting. It was confirmed to be from the B-52.

It is the third seat recovered from the crash and preserved for public viewing.

The other is in a Bangor museum. In 2013, 50 years after the crash, the Snowmobile Club held the annual remembrance at the crash site and the retired pilot gave a rare interview.

Navigator Gerald Adler came face-to-face with his rescuer for the first time in 50 years during a Memorial Day event on 25 May 2013.


These vintage snowmobiles were used to rescue two men following the crash of a B-52 in a remote section of the Maine mountains. The sleds are kept in the Maine snowmobile museum in Millinocket.


In researching stories on various websites about this crash, I learned that this was the 2nd B52 to have it's stabilizer broken, then crash, the 1st was in Minnesota, in 1958 https://www.twincities.com/2008/09/15/inver-grove-heightsaviation-buff-can-cite-names-of-crew-who-died-in-b-52-crash-50-years-ago/

myself, I feel the govt is responsible for the equipment it knows of that litters the planet, as a result of crashes, or as a result of wars.

After all, try and tell the govt that you'll be expecting them to ignore the aircraft on the local miliotary base, while you relocate it to your forest.... and you'll see them get mighty protective of their ownership of the planes. You know?

But tell them they have some plane crashes to clean up, and they'll give you the I don't think so, it's not in the budget dead shark eye look while they wait for you to move along.

There are many crash sites, on mountain sides, in swamps, in lakes, etc etc that the govt has never bothered to remove. Hell, it's just metals in the environment, and the govt has turned a blind eye to that for a hundred years, unless its YOUR cars and trucks in your back 40, and then you can guess who gets fined by the day until abandoned cars are removed.

https://visitmaine.com/things-to-do/hiking-climbing/b52-crash-site
https://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/31/news/piscataquis/survivor-of-1963-b-52-crash-that-killed-seven-in-maine-dies-after-years-of-military-service/
https://mooseheadhistory.org/aviation-museum/
https://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/24/news/piscataquis/forest-rangers-recover-ejector-seat-from-b-52-that-crashed-in-1963

2 comments:

  1. When I was stationed at Loring AFB, I heard a lot of stories like this. This B-52C flew from Westover AFB, the vertical stabilizer failure happened because of a failure of the bolts that hold the rudder in place, after this incident Boeing corrected the problem. Its amazing to see that the main landing gear is still out there, plus some major pieces like the tail gunners position, but then if you look at where this is on a map, its out in logging country. There's absolutely nothing out there, and the only way in is on the logging tote roads, which aren't that good and controlled by the logging companies. Even so, there was over 90 tons of metal scattered all over that mountain, so there will be pieces of this B-52 there forever. At Loring (which is way north and east of this location) there was an entire KC-135 out in the swamp, which ran off the runway and was never recovered. It was left out there to sink, in the 1980's when I was there just the vertical stab was still visible. Also the occasional B-52 pieces that fell off in flight or were left after incidents.

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    Replies
    1. due to the hours put into editting and adding content, I only just found out that there were 2 companies that got salvage rights, and they grabbed everything, way back in the 60s. I'm surprised to even learn that the snowmobile club has one engine... I can't find a photo of it online though.
      I also learned that this crash site is only 400 feet from where you can park a car. Anyone with a 4x4 could drive right into, and through it.
      How no one has grabbed those tires is a mystery. Maybe they realize that then having them means they can't ever display them, as there are only so many ways to legally claim a set of B52 wheels, and nto be proven to be a thief.
      An entire Kc135? How has no one decided to recover that, for the tons of scrap aluminum at scrap metal prices, alone?
      I recall posting photos of a B29 that crashed in swamp next to the road going to the AFB that it had been trying to land at, and they just left it there as a warning to new pilots

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