US Air Force F-4 Phantom crash between Wittmund and Aurich

On 15 September 1975 an F-4E Phantom II of the alert flight of the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force (69-0266) crashed around four kilometres west-south-west of Wittmundhafen military airfield. The aircraft was destroyed; the crew escaped by ejection seat.

Accident sequence

The three American Phantoms took off shortly one after another and met over the North Sea in order first to practise the planned formation. Fifteen minutes after take-off the three aircraft approached Wittmundhafen. In doing so they first assumed an echelon formation, i.e. they flew side by side slightly staggered to the rear; they had already lowered their arrester hooks. After clearance for a low-altitude flyover, they assumed close-trail formation in the turn onto final approach. The formation descended for the flyover to a height of 300 feet above ground at a speed of 350 knots.

At roughly over the runway threshold, aircraft number 2 and number 3 began oscillating movements about the lateral axis. The pilot of number 3 found himself no longer able to hold a stable position in the formation and pulled the aircraft away up and to the left to a safe distance at a height of 2000 feet above ground.

The escalating movements of number 2 led to this aircraft flying through the turbulence of the jet exhaust of the lead aircraft four times, each time being subjected to hard jolts. Pilot two broke out of the formation down and to the left and then climbed to a height of 1000 feet above ground. There he noticed that neither of the two engines could be controlled any longer. The turbulence from the lead aircraft had caused compressor stalls in both engines.

Since attempts to restart were unsuccessful, the pilot steered the alert aircraft, while steadily losing altitude, towards an uninhabited area. The crew left the aircraft in a controlled manner shortly before impact. The weapon systems officer initiated the ejection at 180 feet above ground; the pilot's seat followed around two seconds later at a height of 100 feet.

The lead aircraft of the alert flight and number 3 (the spare aircraft) initially circled over the accident site and then flew on to their home base of Soesterberg. The control tower at Wittmundhafen had immediately triggered an air accident alarm, so that a German Air Force SAR helicopter was able to pick up the crew of the crashed aircraft after only ten minutes and fly them to the nearest hospital.

The Phantom was destroyed on impact. The crew were uninjured.