F15C 80-007/BT "Shrimp Boat" crash Soesterberg

F15C 80-007/BT "Shrimp Boat" crash Soesterberg
First I'll tell you the story of how it was that aircraft 007 was chosen to perform at the airshow at Soesterberg (pronounced Soo-sterberg) AB in the Netherlands. The aircraft was almost brand new to Bitburg AB. It had arrived from the McDonnell-Douglas factory in St. Louis and had minimal hours on the airframe (about 10) when one of the pilots took it on a cross-country mission to Scandinavia.

(I'm not sure of your background, so I'll take a minute to explain cross-country: A cross-country is where they give you an aircraft for the weekend and allow you to fly it wherever you want in order to get training and flying hours for the wing. Generally you are committed to six sorties - two each Friday and Monday and normally two on Saturday or Sunday, giving you one day off in a country. In Europe, cross-country's were critical to maintaining wing flying hours because of the typical lousy weather over there.)

Anyway, it was summer and the squadron was going to have a big party, so on Sunday the pilot bought a whole bunch of Norwegian shrimp, which was packed in its own frozen brine and ice. He stored the boxes of shrimp in the large area behind the ejection seat Sunday evening. Well, given the temperatures and the two additional sorties he flew on Monday, there was naturally some melting and leaking from the boxes behind the seat. When he landed at Bitburg the pilot spot cleaned the area behind the seat, but unbeknownst to him the now-liquid brine had made it's way into lots of areas of the aircraft. Also, little did anyone know the corrosive effect brine had on aircraft aluminum. After about a week of flying a Crew chief noted lots of rust behind the pilot seat(*). A closer inspection revealed sheet metal damage, and some corrosion on wiring and tubing. It was determined that the damage was so extensive that the regular Wing Level sheet-metal repair shop and maintenance could not handle the job, so the aircraft had to be sent to F-15 PDM (Programmed Depot Maintenance).

(*) When the initial rust was discovered and the story of how this happened came out, and even though the maintenance folks didn't find it amusing, pilots being who they are could not help but see the humor in the story and so the aircraft was given a name: "Shrimp Boat". Just so you know, very few AF aircraft are/were named anymore...so it had to be something special to actually have an aircraft name all the pilots would recognize. Most times when you called maintenance after a flight you just called in the tail number....but 007 was now Shrimp Boat.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• F15C
• 80-007/BT
• Shrimp Boat
• crash
• Soesterberg

[rum825]

Deze vlieger was volgens mij Archie Ripetto uit Bitburg in his " Flying Office " en het was een waanzinnige demo .. beetje jammer van die zeikzachte grond naast de baan.

[mimatupo]

@rum825 De pilot was Dennis R. Kuehler. Op 8 juni 1987 is hij alsnog om het leven gekomen tijdens een laagvlieg manoeuvre met de F15C 81-0056 van het 27ste TFS.

[mimatupo]

In 1981 was er nog helemaal geen spottersberg/heuvel! Maar het is wel ongeveer vanaf die plaats (dichter tegen het hek) gefilmd.

[vonhelsing]

ik herinner me dit nog ik was toen 7 a 8 jaar oud.

toen we terug liepen naar de auto bij mijn vader aan de hand.

goh wat gaat tijd toch snel.

[michaelpilot1000]

@michaelpilot1000 Just wanted to know, do you go on the base? I have seen a few photos of the buildings. Not much on the flight line, base PX. I wonder how much they will tear down for the park? Our building was called AGE. Aero Space Ground Equipment. It was units for mobile elect power for aircraft. When I arrived we had units for starting engines of the Phantom F-4 C aircraft. F-15 did not need this air pressure to turn over turbines of jet engine. We had bomb loaders and portable lights.

[michaelpilot1000]

@Hevrom Will tell you. Everyone I know, who was stationed there consider it the best place and experience All very fond of the Dutch people. I wish that I could have stayed and lived there. I sometimes visit my old duplex thru google. I can click along the streets viewing 360 degrees. Much of town is same. My rented home from Mr. Van Dolderen (Van Dolderen Autowerks) is just the same after 30 odd years. The address is burg. grothestraatt 66 Soest , Nl . It was the left side of home.

[michaelpilot1000]

@Hevrom Hello, well you are welcome in the defense. Sometimes I think what we were doing was more of a cat and mouse routine between east German airforce and our aircraft over the north sea and east west dutch/german border..On rare sunny day many of us were near the post office/ movie theater when 2 MIG aircraft flew over. I can still see the bright large red star on the tail. They must have been less then 300 meters above the tree line. I could see the pilots. PS. I worked FMS, was not pilot.

[ricksteffey123]

He knife edged it right in....

[masterkillerx1]

Schauen Sie nach rechts du Idiot

[michaelpilot1000]

@minkuukel Hello, gud dag. Yes (ja) Open Day. ( Open Dag)

Sgt. R.Michael Pitman. CNA 1977-1980

I lived in Soest with wife and son.

I miss the Nederlands and people!

[michaelpilot1000]

This must have been first accident of this nature at CNA.

We did lose 2 pilots and an aircraft over the North (Nord Zee) Sea in 1978?

Pilot was flying low and dipped a wing into a wave. Yes, pilot error...

In 1975 I witnesed a T-38 crash at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. Both pilots ejected. Only one chute opened. This was done during landing. I happend to be on rescue team that day. The trainee hit the cut corn field nearby and crawled about 6 feet. The aircraft slid along the hard ground ,Undamaged.