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| Date: | Friday 17 March 1961 |
| Time: | 11:32 |
| Type: |  North American A3J-1 Vigilante |
| Owner/operator: | United States Navy (USN) |
| Registration: | 146700 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Chesapeake Bay near NAS Patuxent River, MD -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | NHK |
| NHK | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Crashed in shallow water of the Chesapeake Bay and broke apart. Pilot Lt Cmdr William E. Grimes (37).
Mirror Landing approach. Uncontrolled collision with water.
Navy Test Pilot Lt. Commander William E. Grimes, sole crew member, was killed in a landing accident. He was attached to the Weapons System Test Division NATC Patuxent River, MD.
Grimes had completed 9 mirror MFCLP approaches (meatball glidepath) on Runway 2, of which 5 were touch & go and 4 wave-offs. On his 10th approach he was waved off because of the close approach of an AD-5 Skyraider landing on Runway 6. Upon clearance for his 11th downwind inside an R4Y (Convair CV-240) the tower transmitted the following message: “700 you’re on the Vigilante 852” (this was a second Vigilante in the pattern, 147852). Grimes last radio transmission was “700 Roger”.
The accident Vigilante was then seen to pull up and Grimes attempted ejection.
Vigilante 146700 was at 600-700 feet with gear and flaps down when it climbed sharply at 45 degrees. During this climb Grimes retracted gear and flaps. Front and rear canopy and rear seat left the aircraft at about 1,200’. The Vigilante climbed to 4,000’ when the nose fell off. It went into a steep dive and started a second steep climb. This second ascent reached 3,000’ and it again went into a steep dive. Recovery was made from this dive at 500-800’. Grimes did a wing-over reaching 2,000’ and recovered momentarily.
The airplane then climbed sharply again, entered a hammerhead stall and dove into the Chesapeake Bay 150’ from the shore nearly vertical in 3 feet of water.
The mud and clay bottom absorbed most of the impact but wreckage was imbedded in the bottom to a depth of 25-30 feet.
95% of the aircraft was recovered over an extensive salvage operation lasting almost a month.
There was an apparent front seat ejection malfunction (there was no one in the rear seat). The ejection seat system required the rear seat to fire and clear before the front seat interlocks were satisfied. The rear seat cleared the aircraft but the Time Delay Initiators were found unfired so that the front seat remained in the aircraft.
Flight control system failures were identified (fatigue crack found in the FCS/Flight Control System hydraulic pump). The airframe had a long history of hydraulic system component and FCS failures and the FCS was causing “longitudinal oscillation” due to an actuator failure.
Both his canopies were off and his ejection seat had failed, in addition to all of the traffic in the pattern.
Lt Commander Grimes was a Naval Academy graduate, 1946. He had served in An F4U fighter squadron during the Korean War receiving the Air Medal with 2 stars and a Navy unit citation.
This was the 7th production Vigilante built (not including the two prototypes) and had only been used as a test ship. Manufactured 10 November 1959, it had 343.8 hours on it.
Sources:
http://www.forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/A-5.html
Evening Independent 19 March 1961, pB3
US Navy accident report
Images:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Jan-2022 19:15 | TB | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 21-May-2024 11:49 | ChrisB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Photo] |
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