3:10 to san Diego BY DAROLD GUTTORMSON

$MCAS El Toro, 1958 or 1959, Marine Second Lt. New Guy arrives to VMF(AW)542 from VMA121. He was personally selected by the squadron commanding officer to join the squadron, because New Guy had some swept wing time in the A-4 Skyhawk. At the time, there was an impression, held by many, that ‘swept wing’ flight time was a super great experience that created highly skilled pilots. As aircraft with conventional straight wings were able to attain greater airspeeds they encountered a turbulence or shock wave when approaching the speed of sound. The swept wing would delay the onset of the shock wave so higher airspeeds could be reached prior to the buffeting. The situation was that Lt New Guy had his first flight in the F4D-1 on one day and it was not a pretty sight. He received a ‘Thumbs Down’ from the pilot that chased him on that first flight designated Fam 1 in the training syllabus. Pilots weren’t allowed to fly alone in the working until Fam 1 was successfully negotiated. The CO decided to take Lt New Guy under his wing and personally get him through the Fam 1 Re-fly. After a detailed briefing by the CO, Lt. New Guy took off in the F4D-1 with the CO in the chase position. All went well until passing through 20,000 feet when Lt. New Guy reported that the engine of his plane sounded like “chains were being dragged through it.” This is not a good thing. The CO asked him if he was going to “punch out (eject) or BRING MY PLANE BACK?” The CO and Lt. New Guy planned to do a Flame Out Approach to a full stop landing at MCAS El Toro. They then flew out to sea and jettisoned the two wing fuel tanks on Lt. New Guy’s plane. The normal Flame Out Approach (FOA) for the F4D-1 is to start 10,000 feet AGL (above ground level) over the point of intended landing. This is followed by a 360-degree turn to a landing one third of the way down the runway. There are checkpoints for altitude and airspeed at each 90 deg of turn. Lt New Guy thought he could improve on the normal published FOA pattern by adding some altitude and airspeed to each checkpoint. If the FOA called for 10,000 feet at 250 Knots then 10,200 feet at 275 was better, right? Wrong. This was not a good idea. It put Lt New Guy over the runway with excess airspeed. He wanted to land but the plane did not as it was going much too fast. Lt New Guy missed the arresting gear, went off the end of the runway, and took out a power pole. (This turned off the electrical power to the housing area. Many women had their washing and ironing plan of the day cut short thanks to Lt New Guy). Lt. New Guy told me later that he wanted to put both feet on one rudder pedal as the power pole was directly ahead of the cockpit. (This is not possible in the F4D as the pilot’s feet and legs are separated by the flight controls and each foot has its own area). The power pole narrowly missed the nose of the plane and went by on one side just a tad off the aircraft centerline. This is important because if the pole had impacted on the center of the nose it would have penetrated the radar cone and ended up in Lt. New Guy’s lap. Lt New Guy was along for the ride at this point as the plane went across the perimeter road, through a chain link fence, across about 200 yards of a cotton field and, after all that, ended up on the railroad tracks. In his role as chase pilot the CO was in a perfect position to follow Lt New Guys progress in Fam I Re-fly. The CO must have seriously considering flying west and out to sea until fuel starvation could save him from having to debrief this flight. Lt New Guy decided it was time to vacate the cockpit so he tried to open the canopy by the normal method. The clamshell canopy on the F4D normally opens from the front quite efficiently. However, the airplane had suffered numerous dings going thru all the landscape in the preceding paragraph so it raised only about 2-3 inches and would not open any further. Lt New Guy could not raise the canopy any further by applying upward force so he reverted to the emergency system. This involves pulling a canopy jettison handle, which normally gets rid of the canopy by firing a rod aft of the ejection seat that strikes the canopy at a hard point and separates the canopy from the aircraft. However, when Lt New Guy raised the canopy by hand it moved slightly to the side and the rod missed the hard point and went thru a soft part of the canopy. The canopy jettison rod had now deserted Lt. New Guy and what was left of the aircraft. The canopy did not move after the jettison handle was pulled. Lt New Guy was now trapped in the cockpit and looking to his 3 O’clock he astutely took note of the fact that the Los Angeles to San Diego express train bearing down on him was exactly on time. The F4D-1 was positioned with its nose 90 deg to the tracks so the train hit the plane directly on the starboard side. At sometime during these events, the ejection seat fired. It is not known whether Lt New Guy pulled the face curtain or if the impact of the train fired the seat. However, the seat went nowhere. There was no firm structure remaining for the seat to launch from so the seat remained in the plane almost in its original position. The starboard side of the cockpit opened as if a giant can opener had cut it from top to bottom due to impact from the train. Lt New Guy stepped jauntily out of the newly formed side cockpit access door with only a broken collarbone and a deployed parachute. The train engineer helped the Lt out of his parachute harness. This was an act that earned the engineer some high quality award from our squadron. (We gave him a coffee cup with the squadron logo on it. One can be sure that the coffee cup now has a place of honor in the engineer’s trophy case). The rescue helicopter arrived and transported Lt New Guy to the base hospital. He was examined and found to have only a collarbone (clavicle) fracture and extensive skid marks in his laundry. The Squadron Flight Surgeon said that there were numerous times during the flight that should have caused Lt New Guy to be fatally injured We learned later that most of the train passengers in the first two cars sued the railroad for “whiplash injury”. I had occasion to talk with the Marine that was on duty in the control tower during this accident. He spent the entire duration of this accident trying unsuccessfully to contact the railroad. What action the railroad would have taken had they been informed of the situation is not known. There was a direct phone line installed from the air station tower to the railroad shortly after this accident. We can only assume that this communication capability was installed for situations where train and plane collisions occur on a regular basis. This accident resulted in a lot of publicity in the media. As a result, Lt. New Guy received a full mailbox of letters on a daily basis. The letters were from school children and others who expressed great pride in the fact that Lt. New Guy was heroically defending our country so well. Share your comments on the post at the mcws blog$ shapeimage_2_link_0