NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Off topic - Fatality (was: Bubble horizon)
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2002 Dec 17, 20:55 -0500
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2002 Dec 17, 20:55 -0500
Brian, This sounds like about the time this incident happened at Frobisher Bay. Does the report indicate where they landed? Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian WhatcottTo: Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 7:46 PM Subject: Off topic - Fatality (was: Bubble horizon) > Here is the most informed background on this fatality, that I have > been able to find: > > In November 1988, Master Sergeant James Borland, a boom operator > whose principal task it was to fly the fueling boom onto a receiver > airplane when refueling, was preparing to make a celestial observation. > This was the standard practice for that position on a trans-Atlantic run. > (The boom took the sights, and the nav did the sight reductions. ) > > One of two sighting windows then fitted to KC135-E airplanes > broke free, thought to be due to corrosion at the seal. > These overhead windows were located about six feet aft of the > pilots' position, near the boom operators seat. > > Sgt Borland's head and arm were lifted clear outside the aperture > where the force of the partial ejection into the high speed, thin air > killed him. His intact corpse was recovered when the aircraft > descended to a viable height. > > James served with the MARCH Air Force Reserves. > The sighting windows on the KC135 were then deemed > unnecessary, and replaced with a sandwich of plates to > eliminate this risk. > > Brian Whatcott > > At 12:18 AM 12/17/02, Robert Eno, you wrote: > >P.S. > > > >I too, have heard about navigators getting sucked out of the perspex domes > >that used to be affixed to aircraft. The stories were always gruesome and > >usually involved headless navigators. 'nuff said on that. Matter of fact, > >an aircrew member was supposedly killed in about 1989 or thereabouts because > >he got sucked out the dome. The aircraft ended up emergency landing in > >Frobisher Bay. That was the story anyway. It happened too long ago for me to > >verify it. > > > >Robert > > >Paul Hirose, you said: > >Robert > > > KC-135s used to have flat windows on top of the plane near the bubble > > > sextant port. I heard they were replaced with metal plates after an > > > accident in the 80s (?) in which a nav got sucked out to his death. > > > Such stories are often apocryphal, but there may be some truth to this > > > one. The one -135 I worked on in my career, in the 1990s, did have the > > > window openings plated over. In fact, I heard the story of the nav > > > from one of the crew chiefs on that bird, after he noticed me playing > > > with the periscopic sextant. What a way to die. > > > > > > > > Brian Whatcott > Altus OK Eureka! >