Aircraft: A-4M Skyhawk Custodian: VMA-131 BuNo: 158182 modex: QG-00 Location: MCAS Yuma Date: February/March 1979 Description: right front view of Diamondbacks Skyhawk BuNo 158182, QG 00 "Old Double Nuts", after breaking through the revetment paving.   Photo credit: Photograph by and from Randy Toskin contact:

VMA-131 needed an engine change while on deployment at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona during February or March 1979. After the engine change the Skyhawk was towed from the hangar and the "Hot Rod" broke through the revetment paving and sank to its starboard pylons in the ground. A water leak from a nearby wash rack had excavated a chamber under the pavement and the weight of the Skyhawk collapsed the asphalt. The "Tinker Toy" then sank into the eroded chamber. The Marine crash crew manned the "Cherry Picker" and hoisted the Skyhawk from its predicament without damage. Two days later the "Swell if its Mattel" flew to its Willow Grove homebase.

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