I had the opportunity to talk w. Lt. Shane Osborne via phoncon (he was in Disney World!) this past Monday. The whole story is more incredulous than the print version.
The F-8 attempted to join their left wing..the P-3 was doing 180 KIAS at 22K...for a 3rd pass. This A/S is a bad combination clearly for the F-8. His wing came up, either trying to stop closure or as a result of being too slow, and he impacted the #1 prop. The vert fin of the F-8 prob drove the P-3 port aileron full up,..there's a big hole in the port aileron. The P-3 snap rolled near inverted in 2 seconds per Shane..that's 3-4x the max roll rate of the P-3 w/ max aileron only.
The F-8 impacted the radome & broke in two. Chute was sighted by P-3 crew. The P-3 #1 engine flamed out due FOD, the radome exploded due F-8 impact, the P-3 depressurized, lost all airspeed & altimeter info due lost probes & vibrated violently due damage to #1 and #3 prop and tail damage. The HF wire separated and wrapped around the elev trim. Shane said it took both pilots max pull to right the A/C to wings level and still took cherry lights (max power x 3 ) and full right aileron to hold wings level initially. The P-3 had rolled to 130 degrees w/ 30 degrees nose down. They made a recovery at estimated 15 K altitude but still had a 3k ROD despite max power. Maxpowr was required to arrest descent thru 8 K. They most feared #1 prop separting due high vibes, despite attempted Fx.
The cockpit ordered bailout (prob a P-3 first) until they recovered control and then commanded a Prepare to Ditch....before assessing the extent of damage and question of control. They finally selected an emergency landing at the nearest field..Hainan. Other Allied fields were 600 + miles away. They made a 170 Kt GS (they had INS info in the cockpit), no flap, high GW (108K), no trim, no KIAS, damaged aileron, high drag due #1 windmill, damaged elevator, near full R aileron landing at Hainan. Heroic flying that clearly saved 24 lives. Tell the rest of the story if you hear an opinion that starts w. "they should have ditched." A 170 Kt, no radome, no flap, #1 windmill, no trim, damaged aileron ditch would have lost 24 lives. I vote for the flight crew and great flying.
R / Denny the Rod
(Thanks to Bob Miller for the translation!).
More US P3 Orion Meets PRC F-8
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© Copyright 2001 by David W. Tschanz.
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