Old Fighter jet Crash Site..

[superduty]

Back in the late 1950's or early 1960's a fighter jet out of Scott Air Force Base, near Belleville IL crashed in a wooded area near where I live. My father seen it go down and went to the site but the sheriff had already arrived and secured the site. He is 78 years old now and can't remember what year it exactly went down but he remembered about where the location was. He has told me the story about it several times over the years and a few months back asked me if I had a metal detector. I said "yes, why" he said he was thinking about it and was going to see the land owner to get permission to go back there and detect. Well a few days ago he said he got the ok and we set a day last weekend to go. I was stoked about it because I had always heard about it but never seen any info about it and when I asked other around where we live none of them knew any thing about it. Some people even went as far as insinuating my Dad was lying! Sunday me, my Brother, my dad, and one of my sons went back to the site and started looking around. It was on the edge of a corn field and there was some thick timber and a small field off to the side which was extremely over grown. It almost looked like a pasture which was not used for many, many years. We looked for any signs like groups of trees which looked younger than the rest of the trees around there or trees which may have been busted off and regrew. We detected some with not much luck to the point where we started to get disgusted.
About that time a truck cme driving across the field and this guy pulled up and asked what we where going. My Dad came out of the woods and the guy knew my Dad. He told the guy what we where after and he even said he lived around there all his life and he never ever heard anything about it. Then he said there was a chunk of metal down the tree line that had been there ever since he could remember. He said he seen it several time while mushroom hunting and squirrel hunting. he took us to it and as soon as I seen it I knew we where on to something!! heres a pic of it.









After we found this I started getting hits all around the place where the metal was. Heres some pics of some of the other stuff we dug up..































The area behind the Cherokee is where most of the big stuff was found. The trees in that area also looked younger.




We found a lot of small chunks out in this field. I think this field may have been woods at the time of the crash and it landed out there and the Air force hauled away most of the stuff and pushed the rest of the smaller pieces into the woods and down into a ravine.






Heres a few more pics of the site and some of the smaller stuff we found.


















Heres our digger..!

[sirwalle]

thats some strange finds. last thing I was plane parts. but cool looking. to bad you didn't find any emblem about the plane.

[devros]

Believe it or not but those part numbers can still be traced. The numbers on the part you have are exactly that, part numbers, if we had a IPC, it's a parts catalog we could look them up and tell what they were. I work in the aviation field. Pretty cool none the less. Thanks for sharing.

[superduty]

Thanks devros, thats why I cleaned it off and photographed it. I was hoping to just find out the type of fighter it was. My son is really into metal detecting and he would love to see a pic of what it looked like before it crashed. Any help in IDing the type of jet would be greatly appreciated. All the bigger chunks where loaded onto several flat beds and hauled off right after the crash occurred.

[Ferrous]

http://planecrashinfo.com/database.htm

If you can narrow the time line you might be able to to research this database and find out a little more about the crash.

[FoundInNC]

very original finds. good research!

[superduty]

Thanks for the link. I know it was between 1955 and 1963 so i went through all the listings on your link but they didn't have any info about a crash in our area. I found another site just like that one yesterday and did the same thing but had no luck. Thanks again for helping. I found this site but they charge for any info they send and I think I can get the info for free if I keep looking.

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/default.htm

[NebTrac]

A most interesting story, and I'll bet one that occupies your mind even more - now that you've got some hard evidence. Thanks for all those pictures. That must've been something for your dad...witnessing the actual crash.

NebTrac

[RickO]

Great story and cool that you found the site. Hope you find some history to tell you more about it. Also check newspaper archives... bound to have written it up at the time. Local library should have the records. RickO

[Dirt]

Super, this accident occurred in 1953, west of Scott AFB. See below.

The 85th FIS suffered its first fatal F-86D loss on October 22 when Major Yancy Williams crashed after takeoff from Runway 14 (51-3029). Williams attempted to turn to the northwest, overshot the approach to Runway 36, and then attempted a landing in a cornfield west of the base. He almost made it, but the Sabre struck an electric transformer pole and exploded. The accident investigation showed that the Sabre had a hydraulic elevator control lock due to a misconnecting of hydraulic lines. Williams had been the squadrons Material Officer.

[Dirt]

Super, this is another accident that occurred in 1956 near Mascoutah. One of these may your accident.

On October 9 1st Lt. Roger Pile was serving as an early morning target for another flight of F-86Ds when his engine began loosing oil pressure. On the way back to Scott AFB it then had a double generator failure. Pile attempted a flameout approach to Runway 31 but its engine seized and he had to eject over Mascoutah, Illinois. Pile was commended for his courage in sticking with the Sabre long enough to ensure that it would not strike two schools in Mascoutah.

[superduty]

Thanks Dirt, I was told the pilot successfully ejected over the little town of about 350 people called Evansville, IL which is about 4-5 miles directly west of the crash site. This town of Evansville, IL would be the largest town nearest the crash site. There is another small town of about 50 to 60 people about 2 miles from the crash site called Walsh, IL but Walsh is so small that I doubt they would have even listed it as the crash site. Evansville may also be so small that they didn't use it as the location. The crash site is actually about 40 miles south of Scott A.F.B. Mascoutah is a small town located about 2-3 miles south east of the base.
My Dad told me it happened after he bought the farm which he lives at today. I think they bought it in 1959 or 1960. Also my Mother always told me my oldest brother was very small and at the time of the crash and that he was playing outside and seen it go down and came running in the house and told her a plane landed in the trees. He was born in 1953 so he had rto be at least three or four when it happened. My Dad can't get the dates straight because when they bought our farm they lived in the small town of Walsh, which is three miles away from the farm, and they lived in town and worked out on the farm and worked building his house for the first few years after the purchase.So he has a lot of his dates mixed up. Hopefully I will get some time this weekend to go to the county seat and look at some old records. Thanks again for your input.
SD

[Dirt]

Super, here you go. This must be your aircraft.


On July 21, 1958 1st Lt. Charles "Bud" Rogers had to eject from his F-86L (52-10134) after it caught on fire during an engineering test flight near Walsh, Illinois. He was uninjured.

[Dirt]

The only other one that may be a possibility.. Good luck. Pretty close to the previous post.

The 85th FIS lost its last F-86L on April 9, 1959 as 2nd Lt. Charles Rasnic was participating in his first practice scramble with the squadron after graduating from Perrin AFB, Texas just two months previously. The fuel system in his Sabre (52-4298) failed and no amount of corrective efforts would help, and when the engine quit over southern Illinois, Rasnic ejected three miles southeast of Houston, Illinois without injury. [Just some five miles from where Rogers' had to eject.]

[superduty]

I Think you found it Dirt!!!! The first one about "Bud" Rogers is more than likely the crash we found! The second crash about 2nd LT. Charles Rasnic sounds like a crash near our area than I have never heard of! Maybe it could be our next expedition!!! Thank You so much for your research Dirt! When I find more out about it I will post any info I find.
Thank You
SD

[NCBounty15]

Wow, congrats on the research and recovery! Thanks for all of the photos too, that's really fascinating that your dad appears to be the only one that remembers the crash! HH
NC

[dewcon]

Ive never thought of a plane crash.... but i know where 2 of them are here in Ind. One came down in Newbraska IN back in the 60 another about 10 miles from that one. My dad took me to the sit and many of the people picked up parts at the site. Those planes were part of testing and i remember almost every night having a sonic boom from them as they flew over. They stopped the testing after those 2 went down. I dont know if there would be anything worth recovering. I do know many people thought it was an unusual alloy being used that the plane was made of.

Dew

[Dirt]

Super, as you may know the F-86 Sabre Jet was the aircraft that turned the air war in our favor in the Korean War. Prior to that we had the F-80 Shooting Star that just couldn't measure up to the Russian MIG. The F-86 just cleaned up on the MIG's

[superduty]

When I think of Sabre I usually think of the F-86F for some reason.. Maybe they used the 86F in Hollywood more or it was in a well know movie. Heres a pic of the F-86L the one that crashed near me.

http://www.marchfield.org/f86l.htm

And one of the F-86F..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F-86-4fiw.jpg

[Dirt]

You think right, Super. The F-86F was the last of three models used in Korea. Preceded by the A and E models. The F-86L was not on the scene until some two plus years after the war was over and then only in the states.