The Culver City Hole This story resurfaced when Eric Shyer, at our thirty-year reunion, was asking me questions about this event that happened in February of 1968. At the time I could only remember five men who were on the flight. As I called and e-mailed, I finally came up with the whole crew ! That was something to do after nearly thirty-two years ! Reed Phillips and Dave Lances were the pilots. John Bourdo, Bill Driver and Vic Calise were the B/N's (Bombardier/Navigators) and Al Doggett, Linley Taylor, Jim Britts and Sam Gore made up the enlisted crew. Now here's the story...Late one night, returning from a test flight, we landed at Huges aircraft plant. We had been flying out of there for about four months. Hughes made some of the systems we were to use in Vietnam. After landing we had to taxi through the dark and in some tight areas. The plane captain would get out and direct the pilot through these spots and park the plane. We had done this many times over those four months The plant has a pit with an inclined lip around it. The pit was used to drop a Phoenix missile from the F-111. Huges made the system used to drop the missile and the pit was filled with foam so the missile would not be damaged. The pit was covered with a plywood cover and then a thick metal cover at night. Every night we had to taxi over the pit. After our last test flight disaster struck. As usual I was directing the plane to our parking area. We had to add power to get over the lip of the pit. As the plane rolled over the lip, it went thru the plywood cover ! The prop hit the concrete and shattered. The starboard jet pod was crushed and the body of the tail hit the concrete ! The pilots shut down the engines. Linley Taylor, who was at the rear hatch, was the first man off the plane. That was really moving ! I was struck by a flat part of the prop in the chest which knocked me down. After the crew got out we secured the plane and checked out the damage. It sure looked bad to me. Al Doggett and I sat on the ramp and talked until dawn. I was worried that I would be thrown out of the Navy. That was a long and lonely night for me. Years later, I found out that two lieutenants were worried too. We called NAS Point Magoo and had them send us some air bags and an air compressor. They got to Culver City about noon that day. While jacking up the plane with the air bags one of the bags was punctured by the bombay racks. We let them down and placed plywood between the wing and the air bags. This time it worked. The proper covers were installed over the pit and we towed our plane to the parking line. Lt. Dave Lences was the maintaince officer and he told the admirial if he got us a fully built up jet pod and a new prop that the plane would be flying in one week ! The adimiral said he would give us ten days. Project TRIM had the best ground crew that I have ever worked with. Two days after we got the plane out of the pit it was on a test flight ! Lt. Phillips later told me that PAX River Naval Air Test Center investigated the incident and determined the cause as Huges Aircraft Facility error ! Thirty-two years later it still gives me goose-bumps to think about that day. - Story submitted by S. Sam Gore, Plane Capt., Crew One. |