[Hutch001b]

Now this had to come as a hell of a surprise for this pilot! Wonder what his new nickname will be!

USAF: Accidental Ejection Caused F-15 Crash At St. George Island

POSTED: 7:31 am EDT September 8, 2004

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- An unintended ejection caused the May 21 crash that left an F-15 Eagle embedded in a marsh at St. George Island, Air Force officials say. The plane's pilot, who parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle island, suffered minor injuries.

A crash investigation board concluded that an air regulation valve on the pilot's body harness snagged the ejection seat handle, and when the pilot turned his head to check his position, the handle was raised, triggering the ejection, said David Smith, a spokesman for Headquarters Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

"This is a very unusual incident," Smith told The News Herald, of Panama City. He said he had never heard of a similar crash in the Air Force.

The pilot, Lt. Col. Patrick Marshall, was in a mock dogfight with a student pilot at the time. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who rescued Marshall from the Gulf told The News Herald on the day of the crash that Marshall had no idea upon his rescue what had happened.

Smith said the investigation is closed and Marshall has been relieved of all blame.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is still guarding the fighter around the clock and is considering proposals to remove it from the muck.

The aircraft is embedded 25 feet into the mud 160 yards from the nearest house in a gated island community. It was worth $35 million before it crashed, but has been deemed a total loss.

 

[bontai Joe]

They haven't figured out a way to remove the aircraft since May? Must have some of our government's best minds working on that problem.edro:

 

[Chris]

Of course --- HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Cant figure it out...maybe they should start a thread here on TF for us to solve it for them. Guarding a totalled plane 24/7 --- that probably means they probably could have purchased a new plane with the $ they spent on guarding this metallic wreck.

:furious: :furious: :furious: :furious: :furious:

 

[Live Oak]

Geeezzz, the plane is nearly 63 ft. long! You would think there is enough sticking out of the muck that they could wrap a cable around and pull and blame thing out! :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

 

[guest2]

It makes me think there's a reason for them not taking it out. I'm sure they could have recovered it already and if it was say a commercial airliner they would have. Maybe this one is something they don't want anyone to see just yet. Could have special equipment or something they don't want to show the world on the evening news.

 

[balmoralboy]

Not that simple!

I'm not sure it's that simple a job. There can't be that many places you can latch on without ripping a wing off - maybe the engine mounts would do.

Also, the mud would give you problems setting up a crane and a flatbed:night: :furious:

Anybody any good ideas on how to do it?

 

[memmurphy]

Skycrane

Those big helicopters that put airconditioning units on tall buildings.

Skycrane

If it could not lift it, maybe they could just drag it to where a truck could reach it.

It does seem like it must have something they don't want outsiders to see. Could be the experimental ejection seat mechanism.

Mark

 

[Stewart]

Sorry guys, it just isn' that simple!!! A lot of that mass of metal is aluminium and when it hits the ground at a high rate of speed there isn't much left but bits and pieces. A track hoe and dump trucks would be the best bet. The big pieces of the motors, landing gear and portions of the ejection seat will come out OK but everything else is another story. There are a couple of reasons the have to guard the site and part of it is what I said before, explosives!!! There are cartridges and rocket motors that could go off if disturbed, the other is there are some sensitive type radios and boxes that they need to make sure they are destroyed or get them back. I would not want to be on the crew that has to find the explosives in that mess. Usually they probe around and when they find one they call EOD in to blow it up in place. They don't usually try and cart things off. 36 million dollard of scrap metal in the end.

We heard that the pilot had his oxygen connector catch the RH ejection handle and whe he looked up away he went!!! Quite the unexpected ride!!:smoking: