29 August 1977 – F-4E USAF (CR 74-1051)
On Monday 29 August 1977 F-4E CR 74-1051 crashed near the island of Terschelling.
That morning the crew completed their preflight preparation at 09:30. The formation takeoff was at 09:55. The two ship flight proceeded at low altitude to an area north of Dutch coast line to conduct practice low altitude intercepts under GCI control. During the set up for the first intercept, the lead aircraft (“Racer 51”) was vectored away from CR 74-1051 (“Racer 52”) and was the intended target in the exercise. The accident aircraft made its last radio transmission a few minutes later: ”R52: And Bandbox, the 52, a 20 nautical mile seperation will be fine for the 90 beam attack, sir.” After that the radio transmission was lost and at 10:35 Zulu the Phantom disappeared from CGI radar.
A rescue operation was immediately launched. Helicopters, a maritime patrol Atlantic airfcraft, and Dutch (navy) ships went straight to the location where the last contact was with the Phantom. When an oil slick was spotted about 10 km north of the isle of Terschelling, it was clear that the F-4 had crashed. The search for the crew started, hoping they had managed to escape. However, as darkness fell, nothing was found to indicate that the crew had been able to escape, so it was concluded that both crew members had perished. The body of pilot 1st Lt. Mickey L. Johnston was found a day after the crash, the body of WSO 1st Lt. Patrick H. Pondrom was found a week later. Both of them were in their mid twenties.
