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usaf PILOT TRANING CLASS 73-06

VANCE AFB OKLAHOMA

April 1972 - March 1973
Who we were, the place we were in, and how those 48 weeks changed our lives.

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Photographs are a mixture of those taken by our members and those downloaded from on-line sources.

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Phil and five other crew members were killed in this aircraft 45 miles north of Detroit, Michigan on July 26, 1975. As members of the Air Force Reserve, they were flying a low-level training mission out of Selfridge field. The cause of the accident was a separation of a propeller blade on the number 3 engine (right inboard) which impacted the number 4 engine (right outboard) causing that engine to immediately disintegrate. With all power on the right wing suddenly eliminated the asymmetric thrust from the two left engines caused the plane to uncontrollably roll right. 

Phil and his wife, Lynn, had two sons, Rocky and Matthew. He worked as a chemical engineer with Dow Chemical in Midland, Mi.

IMLAY CITY, Mich., July 26 (UPI) — A United States Air Force C130 Hercules transport plane crashed into a field and burned today, killing five of the six reservist crewmen on board, an Air Force spokesman said.

 

The spokesman said the plane had been on a routine weekend training flight near tihs Lapeer County community.

The lone survivor was reported in critical condition at the University of Michigan's burn center in Ann Arbor.

Identities of all six reservists were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

 

A spokesman at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, about 30 miles south of the crash site, said the four‐engine craft and the crew were assigned to the base's 403d tactical airlift wing.

Details of the crash were sketchy but the authorities said fire and smoke from the wreckage was visible 15 miles away.

 
The Allison T-56 turboprop engine featured an electrically controlled 3-blade propeller. After the accident the USAF refitted C-130s with the hydraulicly controlled Hamilton-Standard 4-blade propeller. The propeller conversion cemented the C-130s legacy as the most reliable military cargo plane in modern times. Too late for Phil and his crew.

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