Many hundreds of miles south, at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, there were nine members of the Air Force sitting for a 6 hour long briefing about the flight plan for that day. The plan was to fly a B-52C Stratofortress, an $8 million aircraft, through mountainous terrain to test low level navigation to avoid the newest Soviet radar technology. The plane was to return to Westover at 5:30 p.m.
A B-52C Stratofortress has a wingspan of 185 feet and measures 160 feet from nose to tail. The 8 jet engines can propel this aircraft at speeds of up to 650 mph at altitudes above 50,000 feet. The plane has the ability to carry two nuclear warheads and a number of short-range missiles.
For this mission there would be no warheads on board.
The men had a choice: they could fly through the mountains of northern Maine or they could fly through the mountains of the Carolinas. They chose to fly north into Maine.
Once in position the crew would simulate entering enemy airspace below radar and travel as close to the ground as possible over and in between the mountains of northern Maine.
In mountainous terrain something called Lee Waves or “mountain waves” form due to the shape of the Earth. Just think of it as driving a car over a hilly road. You go up and down and the entire time it is a turbulent ride. Now think of a 50mph wind moving across mountains. It goes up and down and creates dangerous air patterns for those trying to fly near the ground.
The upper deck of a B-52 is the only location that has upward launching ejection seats that can function at any altitude. The pilot, copilot, and navigator are on the upper deck. The lower deck has downward launching ejection seats and therefore an altitude of 200 feet is necessary to allow for ejection- otherwise the seats would crash into the ground and guarantee death. Spare crew members do not have ejection seats and must use parachutes and jump out of the doors of the plane.
The navigator, Capt. Gerald J. Adler, ejected first. He was followed by the pilot, Lt. Col. Dante E. Bulli. The copilot, Maj. Robert J. Morrison, was the third to eject.
The plane was in a steep dive and the altitude was below 200 feet. The lower deck members had no way of ejecting from the aircraft. Within seconds of Morrison ejecting the plane smashed into the side of Elephant Mountain at 2:52 p.m at over 300mph.
The remaining crew on the B-52 died immediately. They were:
Lt. Col. Joe R. Simpson Jr.
Maj. William W. Gabriel
Maj. Robert J, Hill
Capt. Herbert L. Hansen
Capt, Charles G. Leuchter
T-Sgt. Michael F. O’Keffe
Only two of the three parachutes deployed and the wind buffeted their descent to the ground. Morrison’s chute deployed and he ended up a mile away from the crash site. Upon reaching the forest his seat crashed into a tree and killed him.
Lt. Col. Bulli broke his ankle when he landed in a tree 30 feet above the ground. His chute deployed.
Capt. Adler’s chute did not deploy and he landed in 5 feet of snow about 2,000 feet from the crash site. He struck the ground with an impact equal to 16 times the force of gravity. The collision fractured his skull and snapped three of his ribs. The impact was so hard that it bent his ejection seat and he could not access his survival kit.
A logging road worker saw the final turn of the B-52 and witnessed the fireball and smoke after it crashed into the ground. He contacted the authorities immediately.
Bulli and Adler were alone and did not know if there were any other survivors. Temperatures dropped rapidly after sunset through the -20’s to around -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Bulli was able to access his survival kit and removed the sleeping bag to cover himself in his perch 30 feet above the ground. Again, Adler’s seat was bent and he could not access his sleeping bag. He opened up his parachute and used it as a blanket to survive the night.
The next morning the Scott Paper Company sent plows to clear the logging road near Elephant Mountain. They had to pile the snow over 10 feet high to create a path wide enough for emergency vehicles to respond. The plows were only able to get the responders within 1.5 miles of the crash site. Fortunately they brought snow machines to travel the rest of the way.
By mid-morning the rescuers had reached the crash site. They had to search the surrounding woods for survivors as they did not know how many ejected before it crashed. Finally they found Adler and Bulli and at 11 a.m on January 25, 1964 they were airlifted to a hospital.
Bulli spent three months in the hospital and returned to active duty upon his release.
Adler lost consciousness for five days and developed pneumonia. His leg was so badly frostbitten that they had to amputate it when gangrene set in. He spent the better part of a year in the hospital but did survive.
An investigation was conducted and it was determined that turbulence-induced structural failure was to blame. Due to buffeting stresses from the “mountain waves” the B-52’s vertical stabilizer broke off of the plane. This was the loud bang the crew heard. It landed a mile and a half away from the impact site. With the vertical stabilizer gone the plane lost all directional capability and rolled uncontrollably before crashing into the mountainside.
The B-52 was not engineered for making quick maneuvers at an altitude of 500 feet. This was not recognized until three more B-52s suffered stabilizer failure over the next year killing 5 men. Finally Boeing decided to strengthen the rudder connection bolts. Immediately the “problem” was fixed.
Authorities removed the classified and top secret wreckage from the impact site but it was not logical to remove all of the wreckage from the mountain. Today you can visit Elephant Mountain by accessing a 400 yard trail off a logging road north of Greenville, Maine.
In the Fall of 2011 Bruce Reed, a Maine Forest Service employee, found an ejection seat while hunting on Elephant Mountain. In May of 2012 Reed returned and documented the numbers on the seat to see if it was a match with the B-52. It matched and was removed and placed in a memorial for the crash victims created by the Moosehead Rider’s Snowmobile Club.
Thank you for reading.