15 September 1975 – F-4E
In August and September 1975 the runway at Soesterberg was closed for construction. During that time the main contingent of the F-4s of the 32nd weas deployed to Zaragoza AB, Spain for weapons training. But the 32nd also had a three plane Zulu alert detachment at Wittmund AB, Germany. The crew of the later crashed F-4 assumed their alert duties at Wittmund on 3 September.
This Zulu alert detachment was scheduled to return to Soesterberg AB on Monday 15 September. The three planes (two alert planes and one reserve) would be replaced with three other Soesterberg Phantoms. The planning for the return flight began on 13 September. On 12 September the crews had been watching practice missions from German F-4F’s for a 14 September airshow at Ahlhorn. After watching the fly-by’s the crews decided to do something thereselves on Monday the 15th when leaving Wittmund.
On Monday morning at 8:05 the two Zulu alert F-4s (CR 69-0264 and CR 69-0266) took off and one minute later the reserve F-4 also left Wittmund. The three F-4s joined up North of the airbase and practiced their formation. After that they returned to Wittmund AB to make a formation low pass as a salute to JG-71. About fifteen minutes after departing, the Wolfhound F-4s appeared near the runway with landing gear and flaps up and tail hooks down. They moved into close formation and made a fly by over Wittmund AB. Suddenly, CR 69-0266 broke out of position to the right with its nose down. Lt. Lorinsz raised the tail hook and advanced his throttles to rejoin with the leader. At that point Lt. Lorinsz realized that there was no response to his throttle movements. He diagnosed the problems as double compressor stalls. He first tried to make an emergency landing on runway 08. But after a left turn Lorinsz realized that he would never make it the runway and steered his F-4 in the direction of an uninhabited area where he and his navigator bailed out. The F-4E crashed not too far from Wittmund AB. The crew of a German F-4F that took off right after the fly-by of the CR F-4s saw the crash of the CR F-4 and saw both crew members bailing out.
The other two CR F-4s flew over the crash site right away and decided to fly back to Soesterberg when they witnessed two good chutes and realized that their colleagues escaped safely.
The crew of the 69-0266 was brought to a hospital in Sande by a SAR helicopter, but didn’t need further treatment.
