1966 NASA T-38 crash
Occupants | 2 |
---|---|
Passengers | 0 |
Crew | 2 |
Fatalities | 2 |
Survivors | 0 |
On February 28, 1966, a
In the aftermath of the crash, the backup crew of
Accident
See and Bassett were the prime crew assigned to the
See and Bassett flew in one
See then elected to perform a visual circling approach, a simplified landing procedure allowing flight under instrument rules, as long as the pilot can keep the airfield and any preceding aircraft in sight. The reported weather conditions at the airport were adequate for this type of approach, but visibility was irregular and deteriorating rapidly. Stafford began to follow See's plane, but when he lost sight of it in the clouds, he instead followed the standard procedure for a missed approach and pulled his aircraft up, back into the clouds for another attempt at an instrument landing.[4]
See completed a full circle to the left at an altitude of 500 to 600 ft (150 to 180 m), and announced his intention to land on the southwest runway (24).
Both astronauts died instantly from
Inside Building 101, 17 McDonnell employees and contractors received mostly minor injuries from falling debris.[9][4] The crash set off several small fires inside the building,[9][10] and caused minor flooding from broken pipes and sprinklers.[1] See and Bassett died within 500 ft (150 m) of the spacecraft that they were to have flown in orbit, which was in the final stages of assembly in another part of Building 101.[5] Spacecraft S/C9 was undamaged, but a piece of debris from the T-38's wing struck the unfinished S/C10 spacecraft.[11]
Stafford and Cernan, still circling in the clouds in the second T-38, had no idea what had happened to their flight partners. Air traffic controllers were confused by the two planes in flight attempting different abort actions after the initial missed approach,[7] and no one on the ground knew who was in the crashed plane.[2] After some delay, Stafford and Cernan were asked to identify themselves and given permission to land, but they were not informed of the crash until on the ground.[11][12] Although personally distraught over the loss of his close colleagues and friends, Stafford acted as NASA's chief contact on the scene until other personnel arrived to relieve him later in the day.[13]
Investigation and aftermath
NASA immediately appointed a seven-member panel to investigate the crash, headed by their Chief of the Astronaut Office, Alan Shepard. While the panel weighed possible medical issues, aircraft maintenance problems, weather conditions, and air traffic control factors, their end verdict was pilot error, citing See's inability "to maintain visual reference for a landing" as the primary cause of the crash.[4] See was described as a "cautious and conservative" pilot in the accident report.[14] In his memoir, chief astronaut Deke Slayton was less diplomatic, calling See's piloting skills "old-womanish."[11][15][16] Others, including Neil Armstrong, who had worked with See on the backup crew for Gemini 5, have since defended See's piloting ability.[8][11]
Since the crash did not affect space flight operations and the spacecraft itself was undamaged—it was shipped to NASA two days after the crash—the accident caused neither delays nor engineering changes in the U.S. space program.[17] However, the loss of the Gemini 9 crew did cause NASA to reshuffle the crew assignments for subsequent Gemini and Apollo missions; Stafford and Cernan were moved up to the primary position for Gemini 9, re-designated Gemini 9A. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, who had formerly been the backup for Gemini 10, became the back-up crew for Gemini 9A, and through the normal rotation were then assigned as prime crew for the 1966's Gemini 12. Without experience during the Gemini mission, Buzz Aldrin would have been an unlikely choice for the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, during which he became the second man to walk on the Moon.[11]
Notes
- ^ St. Louis, MO. Archivedfrom the original on March 19, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ^ a b Freeze, Di (July 2005). "Gene Cernan: Always Shoot for the Moon, Part I". Airport Journals. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ^ Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, pp. 33–34.
- ^ a b c d e "Accident Board Reports Findings in See-Bassett Crash" (PDF). Space News Roundup. Vol. 5, no. 17. Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas: NASA. June 10, 1966. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ^ Pocatello, ID. Associated Press. p. 1. Archivedfrom the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ^ Hacker & Grimwood 1977, pp. 323–324.
- ^ a b c Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, p. 35.
- ^ a b Evans, Ben (March 5, 2012). ""A Bad Call": The Accident Which Almost Lost Project Gemini". AmericaSpace. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- ^ a b Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, p. 66.
- St. Louis, MO. Archivedfrom the original on August 30, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Evans 2009, pp. 308–309.
- ^ Cernan & Davis 2000, p. 99.
- ^ Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, p. 73.
- ^ Slayton & Cassutt 1994, p. 167.
- ^ Cernan & Davis 2000, p. 96.
- ^ Burgess, Doolan & Vis 2003, p. 70.
References
- LCCN 2015042585.
- OCLC 45049476.
- Evans, Ben (2009). Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The Fifties and the Sixties. Springer-Praxis books in space exploration. New York: Springer. OCLC 261924762.
- Hacker, Barton C.; Grimwood, James M. (1977). "Tragedy". On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini. NASA historical series. NASA Public Affairs Office. from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- OCLC 29845663.
External links
- Photos from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine