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| We were getting the squadron ready for a Med cruise on the Independence (CVA-62). The accident actually happened just north of Birmingham AL while returning to MCAS Beaufort on a Sunday 26 March 1966, from a weekend crosscountry with Bob O'Dare. We were low level, just clearing the ridge lines when I had the auto pilot fail nose down. Three negative G's bounced me off the canopy and just as I got the stick back and the auto pilot off the plane impacted the ground at the base of the next ridge line. The accident investigation revealed 68 trees cut down on my flight up the slope. The only saving grace was the next valley, which was very wide and deep so I had room to get flying again. I turned south and landed at Birmingham AFB. The gear came down fine but had no flaps or slats. No one at the AFB could believe that the plane had flown looking like that. There was over six feet of the right wing gone and we found the right hand drop tank on the hillside where the initial impact occured. Everyone was slow to believe my auto pilot story but investigation revealed that it was failed full nose down. Besides everyone agreed that one would not normally hit at the bottom of a ridge line while flathatting. The safety center reviewed six other fatal unexplained crashes and determined that the auto pilot was the cause of three of them. This caused the NATOPS to be changed where the auto pilot was not to be used below 2,500 Ft AGL. I have six or seven pictures of the plane and the impact point and the swath through the trees if you woud like to see them let me know and I will put them in the mail. Semper Fi! Cobra Gerald L. Ellis |
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