vulture38
Guide
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 297
Loc: Lost in cyberSpace
here's another update for you.
"65-0965 had only recently arrived at the 54th WRS after having been converted to WC-130H. On 12 Oct 1974, "Swan 38" departed Clark Air Base in the Philippines on a recon of Typhoon Bess. The last radio contact was at about 2200, when their position was approximately 400 miles northwest of Clark. An investigation board later speculated the crew was on the final leg inbound to make a second fix when they encountered some catastrophic problem. No emergency communications were received. Sea conditions at the time were such that a successful ditching was highly unlikely. Four days of relentless searching by rescue aircraft and two surface ships proved unsuccessful, and the six crewmen were declared missing and presumed dead. The callsign "Swan 38" was retired and a plaque honoring the crew was affixed to the squadron building at Andersen AFB, GU."
The crash at Wake Island you are crediting as a C130 was actually a C133. The C133 was a longer version and to the best of my recollection had some saftey problems.
The crash happened when I lived there. I remeber it because Pan Am was expected in with the a Philipine labor negotiator that was coming to try and help settle the FMC Employees strike. The Pan Am flight landed right after the C133 took off. Everyone taught at first it was the Pan Am flight.
Apparently the C133 had just taken off and "exploded" a few miles out. The beaches were strewn with Debris for weeks and I heard they actually found some body parts.
This was in the same time frame (in Years) when the C124's were having a lot of planes missing.
Ron Skates
My Father was the Asst. Station Manager for FMC which did all the Air craft Maintenance etc. At that time I lived on the old side which is now the Hot Cargo Parking area.
PS The only other real plane catastrope I remeber at Wake was when a wing jack went through a C135 Wing and exploded.
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