Cumberland awakened to a cold and wintry Monday morning on January 13, 1964 with deep snow and radio news that an Air Force Boeing B-52D Strato-Fortress nuclear bomber had crashed due to the severe winter storm. The Strategic Air Command inter- continental bomber, carrying two thermonuclear bombs, had come down west of Lonaconing, Maryland, on the west crest of Big Savage Mountain in the vicinity of the Grantsville electronic omni-navigation station. The B-52D carried a crew of five consisting of Major Tom McCormick – aircraft commander, Major Bob Payne – navigator, Captain Parker ‘Mack’ Peedon – co-pilot, Major Robert Townley – bombardier, and Technical Sergeant Melvin Wooten – tail gunner, who was sitting in the absent electronic warfare officer’s position. Call letters for this particular B-52D on this mission was ‘Buzz One Four’, the bomber and aircrew assigned to the 484th Bomb Wing, based at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia.
Overhead photo of a Boeing B-52 from Air Force Magazine, December 2001
On a flight from Westover Air Force Base in Western Massachusetts to Turner Air Force Base, McCormick and his crew were flying on a southerly course at 33,000 feet, crossing from southern Pennsylvania into western Maryland. At the first encounter with rough turbulence McCormick asked Air Traffic Control for clearance to a lower altitude of 29,000 feet, in an attempt to find smoother flying. Quickly the turbulence increased from slight to moderate to severe. Buzz One Four had flown into a fierce storm caused by the collision of dense arctic air meeting warm unstable air in addition to a 167 mph jetstream, which was not uncommon at the higher altitudes. Suddenly there seemed no escape and the full fury of the storm now enveloped the large aircraft. Chaos erupted on the Strato Fortress flight deck as McCormick and Peedin wrestled with the controls to keep the wings reasonably level. Both chose not use the rudder pedals as they knew the huge 48 foot vertical tail fin was the weak structural part of the aircraft. They worked the throttles for some semblance of directional control, thereby trying to avoid excessive pressure on their plane’s vertical tail fin. The air speed indicator became an unreadable blur as the bomber staggered through 60 mph vertical and sideways jolts. As they attempted to control the wild gyrations they were rocketed up and down, alternately being pinned to their seats and yanked away from them. Suddenly with a loud bang the vertical tail fin sheared off taking the left horizontal stabilizer and Sergeant Wooten’s unoccupied tail gunner’s pod. Wooten was fortunately seated in the absent electronic warfare officer’s position. The aircraft skidded sideways and its right wing rose and kept rising until the plane rolled sickeningly over on its back and slewed into an inverted spin.
Peedin hung in his harness, heaving the control wheel hard right in a futile attempt to bring up the left wing and then out of the corner of his eye he noted a fiery red glow as if an engine were on fire. As the wreckage of Buzz One Four hurled upside down through the storm, G-forces squeezed and yanked the men in their seats and wrenched pieces off the airplane and spun them away in to the frigid void. Peedin’s hands were flung off the jerking control wheel. McCormick groped with his right hand beside his seat for the bailout switch and hit it, setting off a clanging bell and a bright red light at each crew member’s position. A hatch blew sucking out the warmth and oxygen, as the cockpit filled with a hurricane of arctic air, cigarette butts, papers, candy wrappers, and debris. McCormick hit the radio transmit button and with lungs heaving and tremendous effort shouted, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Buzz One Four is bailing out”. One by one, men fired themselves out and disappeared into the shrieking storm, six minutes after the initial radio request seeking smoother air at a lower flight level.
All but Townley ejected from the stricken bomber. Shortly before the bomber entered the storm Townley had announced over the intercom his intention to get out of his seat to relieve himself. As he slid back into his seat the B-52 lurched over into it fatal spin. Townley’s seat had a complicated harness requiring a snug buckling in before a successful seat ejection. Hanging upside down and with the tremendous G forces of the spinning bomber it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to strap ones self into the seat. He probably was still attempting to do so when the bomber crashed. All of the other four crew members who had ejected from the disabled craft landed successfully in the deep snow. Peedin’s parachute landing was two miles south of Grantsville, MD and McCormick three miles away on Meadow Mountain. Wooten struck a piece of the spinning B-52 wreckage on ejection, but he came down still conscious and alive in a flat meadow known around Salisbury, PA, as the Dye Factory field. Payne landed back of the New Germany dam area outside of Grantsville. McCormick and Peedin had attended the Air Force Survival School and following that school’s recommended procedure elected to remain in place using the shelter and warmth available from their parachutes. Utilizing their survival rafts and kits, they inverted the rafts on the snow to ward off the wind and cold, built fires, and waited out the darkness and eventually survived. Wooten and Payne elected to move towards lights they had observed, expecting to soon find shelter, only to freeze to death before they could attain safety. The remains of Robert Townley were located in the wreckage of ‘Buzz One Four’, still in his seat with his shoulder harness straps not buckled.
Even before the flight of ‘Buzz One Four’, the B-52D’s record in encountering turbulence was fearsome. Three B-52D accidents had previously occurred due to vertical tail fin failure. Earlier a test B-52D was purposely flown into heavy turbulence and sure enough the vertical fin of the aircraft was ripped off. The Boeing test pilot, through skill and luck, brought the plane down safely.
During this time in 1964 the intensity of the cold-war was evident and with it the possible fear of a sneak attack by Russia. The US Government ordered that the Strategic Air Command to maintain a dozen B-52 bombers airborne 24 hours a day, loaded with thermonuclear weapons. On these thermonuclear flights, the B-52Ds and their crews would fly their attack profiles soaring across the ocean and angling in toward the target rich Soviet interior before breaking away short of Soviet air space. SAC’s warriors lived the theory of deterrence. Around the clock missions completely taxed the B-52Ds and their crews and support personnel and it was felt that to modify the aircraft to correct the structural defect in the bombers would require an interruption in their effort of around the clock deterrence flights. SAC commanders felt that the Russians could use the B-52 stand down as opportunity for a sneak nuclear attack and postponed the modification to fix the vertical tail fin attachment to the fuselage of the B-52D s. Later B-52G and H models had the weak structural vertical tail fin attachment to the fuselage fixed. War time methods were employed even though it was what was termed a ‘cold war’ during a time of peace.
The fear of radio-active contamination or explosion of atomic bombs was a major concern of the residents of this area, since it was reported that the bomber was carrying the war time ordnance. The small Cumberland Airport terminal building, normally occupied by Cornelius and Ted Whalen’s Montgomery Air Charter Service, was inundated with high ranking Air Force personnel, ranging from generals and colonels to high ranking sergeants, who made the building the headquarters for their search operations. The crash became a national news worthy event and the many news reporters taxed the communication outlets on the Cumberland Airport. With the heavy snowfall, the city of Cumberland provided snow removal equipment resulting in high snow banks around the periphery of the roadways and the small parking lot. Local citizens volunteered their help with food and shelter for the exhausted Air Force personnel. Many Air Force and civilian aircraft shuttled material and personnel between Cumberland and other airports as did civilian and large Air Force helicopters. Several local pilots used their airplanes along with the Civil Air Patrol craft to search for the missing crew members.
Two days later, an Air Force flat bed tractor trailer, with two long bomb shaped tarpaulin covered objects on it, was parked along the airport terminal road. Excitement was high among the local citizens when it was rumored from the Air Force personnel that a Boeing KC-135 (the Air Force version of a Boeing 707 Airliner) was to be dispatched to Cumberland to transport the two atomic bombs to an Air Force base. Local aviators knew such a large aircraft would use all of the 5,800 feet of runway 6-24 and would tax the Cumberland Municipal Airport support facilities. Apparently the Air Force had second thoughts of using the Boeing KC-135 and instead dispatched a large Douglas C-124 Globemaster II cargo aircraft for the mission.
The C-124, with four reciprocating engines, was a large aircraft commonly referred to as the ‘Aluminum Overcast’ and had four big R-4360 Pratt and Whitney radial engines of four rows of cylinders known as the ‘’Corn Cob Engine’. The C-124 had a gross weight was from 175,000 to 185,000 pounds, depending on the particular aircraft model, and a wing span of 174 feet. It was probably the largest aircraft ever to land at the Cumberland Airport. At the Kelly-Springfield Flight Operations building, on the southwest part of the airfield, the C-124 was loaded with the two atomic bombs by gently elevating them into the cargo bay.
Gerry Shaffer related that in the early darkness one evening during that week an Air Force North American T-39 Sabreliner attempted to land on runway 6. The pilot touched down with one third of the runway behind him and then applied the brakes so severely that the heat generated caused the brakes discs to be visibly red hot. Full power was then applied by the pilot as he made a go around for second attempt, which was also unsuccessful. Finally on the third attempt, he was successful in the landing and was able to stop the aircraft. Apparently the Air Force officials, using the local Unicom radio for communicating with the pilot, could not persuade him to attempt a landing in the opposite direction on runway 24. This would have given the pilot a much clearer approach for a landing on the Cumberland facility.
Shaffer also mentioned that three large Air Force Piasecki H-21C ‘Workhorse’ twin- motor, banana shaped helicopters, with rotors on each end, flew in and out of the airport during the search missions. The ‘Banana Helicopter’ was powered with a Wright 1830 reciprocating engine of 1,425 hp and had a gross weight of 15,000 pounds with the capability of attaining a top speed of 120 mph.
Local pilots were entranced by observing the variety and high volume activity during this search and rescue effort of the Air Force and the high ranking personnel in control of the effort. Suddenly on Friday the activity at the Cumberland Municipal Airport returned to normal and the relatively quietness on the wintry and snowy day. It seemed strange as the routine local operations resumed after the intense activity that had transpired. The departure of all the media, the Air Force personnel, the participating aircraft, and associated equipment was rapidly accomplished.
The two survivors, McCormick and Peedin, were able to relay their harrowing experience to their Air Force commanders and to the media. Sadly the three who did not, Townley, Wooten, and Payne, met their death in a strange environment but will not be forgotten. The good citizens of the Grantsville area, many of whom participated in the search, have not forgotten this accident or the aircrew, and have erected a monument in their memory. Periodically ceremonies remembering this B-52 accident and the ‘Cold War’ warriors are held in appreciation of their sacrifice and to remind young people of those facts. Survivors of the three killed in the accident have attended these events. On January 13, 1994 several veterans’ organizations and the Grantsville American Legion Post #214 and a local couple, Danny and Hazel Klotz, marked the 30th anniversary with special memorial services held at the site of the monument commemorating the plane crash.
(The above was extracted from a story by David Wood, which was made available on the Internet. The article was published in Western Massachusetts in the Union-News Sunday Republican. Information was also gathered from interviews with David Long, Gerry Shaffer, former Maryland State Trooper Richard J. Graham, and personal observations).
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Wings Over Cumberland 