1963 Elephant Mountain B-52 crash
On 24 January 1963 a United States Air Force Boeing B-52C Stratofortress with nine crew members on board lost its vertical stabilizer due to buffeting stresses during turbulence at low altitude and crashed on Elephant Mountain in Piscataquis County, Maine, United States, from Greenville. The pilot and the navigator survived the accident. Training mission The crew's training mission was called a Terrain Avoidance Flight to practice techniques to penetrate Advanced Capability Radar (ACR) undetected by Soviet air defense during the Cold War. ACR training flights had already been made over the West Coast of the United States on Poker Deck routes. This was to be the first low-level navigation flight, utilizing terrain-following radar, in the Eastern United States. The crew, consisting of two 99th Bombardment Wing Standardization Division crews based at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, and two instructors from the 39th Bombardment Squadron, 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico, was briefed for six hours the day before the accident. They had the choice of flying over either the Carolinas or Maine. The B-52C departed Westover AFB at 12:11 p.m. on Thursday, 24 January 1963, and was scheduled to return to Westover at 5:30 p.m.