|
The ditching of "Papa Charlie Six" off the Cubi Point runway on Dec. 5 1971 by Tom Winn
I was there....
I was preflighting
another ship for a "victor time" patrol and was scheduled for launch at 0730. As I smoked a cigarette just off the edge of the ramp I watched PC-06 takeoff at about 0710. Just after liftoff I heard a loud
roar and saw flames coming from PC-06's engines that extended from the tailpipes to beyond the mad boom. In horror I saw the nose drop and start to settle in the direction of Olongopo city. I lost sight of her
beyond some buildings and terrain but saw her again as she lined up about a thousand yards off of, and parallel to, the runway. She went into the water with a huge splash and big sections of the aircraft flipped
through the air. We all knew the crew must be dead. Thank goodness we were wrong.
It seemed like forever, but actually only minutes later, helmets and Mae Wests could be seen in the water and a
visiting staff helicopter (from Clark AFB) was hovering on site pulling men aboard. A station rescue boat got the rest, except one; Ensign Ed Cooper died in the crash.
Lt Mike Montgomery was PPC and flying in PC-06's left seat. Lt Brooks Mothorn was in the right seat. ADC Don "Underdog" Underwood was the F/E. Don told us later, over countless shots of whiskey,
that he remembers that all was normal until right after rotate when all four engine TIT gages when to off-scale high temp. He pulled back on the throttles to reduce the overtemp then immediately saw #2 RPM dropping
through about 70% and called "Power Loss Two". By about the time they got the E-Handle out on #2, the #3 RPM was noted to be dropping too! Within the next few seconds the #4 generator must have tripped as
all electrical power was lost and they had to go boost-out on the flight controls. In the space of about 30 seconds up there in the cockpit, things went from normal to 2 engines out. No flight control
hydraulics, no electrical power, and not a flipping clue as to what was happening to them. The airplane was now in very serious trouble as it was at full gross weight, slowing and losing altitude fast. They did
manage a slow turn over the city and did try to get back to the runway but, no dice. They set up as slow a sink rate as they could manage, and let the airplane settle into the calm water of the bay.
Ensign Cooper died on impact when the center fuel tank ruptured under his seat. AW1 "Sully" Sullivan was also slightly injured when the sono chute package landed in his lap. The cabin was immediately filled with sea water, hundreds of gallons of JP5, men in their dislodged seats, along with countless items of loose equipment. All, except for Cooper, managed to get out the exits (and out of the rear of the cabin where the tail of the aircraft broke off).
By the afternoon we all knew what had gone wrong. The airplane's water-alcohol injection system was accidentally serviced (including mine) with water and cleaning solvent by the line crew. The Cubi Point
station supply people also took some responsibility for filling an order for drums of alcohol with identical looking drums of solvent.
|
