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- "...VP-56 P5M-2 accident on 26-27 January 1958 - It is amazing to me to read the incorrect accounts of this accident. At the time, I was a young LTjg, (a qualified 2P, on loan from Crew 8 to 7) and acting navigator aboard P5M-2. Buno 135529 "LQ-7". We took off from Willouhby Bay (NAS Norfolk, Virginia Seadrome)late on the night of 26 January as a "back-up" for another VP-56 aircraft that aborted a Task Group Bravo (Hunter/Killer) mission. About an hour and a half into the flight, en-route to our roundesvous with the Task Group, AT1 Wall, who was manning the electrical panel, reported electrical syptoms that indicated a problem with the STARBOARD Sundstrand Unit. AD1 Wease (the plane captain) and I confirmed that sundstrand fluid was coming over the top of the starboard wing, behind the engine nacelle, a sure sign of sundstrand malfunction. At that time, because the Sundstrand Unit was directly connected to the engine (the Sundstrand Unit permitted the AC generator to run at constant speed regardless of engine RPM) the only procedure to keep the Sundstrand Unit from disintegrating, was to feather the engine. Accordingly the STARBOARD engine was feathered, the drop tank jettisoned, an emergency declared and we proceeded back to NAS Norfolk, Virginia. En-route to NAS Norfolk, Virginia we were advised that the Seadrome was below limits for an ASR approach. There was no alternative but to continue back to NAS Norfolk, Virginia and hope the weather improved. The crew was ordered to ditching stations. Upon arrival, weather conditions had not improved and we proceeded into an ASR approach. During the approach the cockpit did not make visual contact with the Seadrome approach lights and executed a single engine wave-off. On the down-wind leg of the second approach, (desired altitude 500 ft.) we couldn't get above 300 ft. The ASR unit, concerned about our altitude, turned us onto a short final to "avoid the radio towers at Newport News". Turning into the "good" engine we were wide and short on final. The flight deck suddenly was illuminated with flashing yellow/orange light (from the newly installed sealane approach lighting". The aircraft impacted the water left wing down and nose low. It flipped over and broke apart into three major pieces. The cockpit/nose section, the wing and the rest of the aircraft. Bill Wease and I surfaced and clung to some wreckage, while other crewmen who were seated behind us on the flight deck were thrown down the sealane. We were all rescued from the frigid water by squadron mates who augmented the Crash Boat and PBR crews. The fatalities were Cdr Murphy (the Plane Commander and XO of the squadron); Ltjg Dave Utter (Co-pilot); Cdr Cagle (prospective XO and seated next to me at the radar station on the flight deck) and ATC Knudson seated at the Electrical Panel. Interesting to note: Chief Knudson was on his last flight before his retirement. Somewhere en-route back to Norfolk, when the crew took up ditching stations, Chief Knudt told AT1 Wall to let him, Knudson, man the Electrical Panel, because Wall at 6 ft 2 plus was too big and might not be able to get out of the station if "something happened." Because the actual crash occurred in the early morning, the actual date of the incident was January 27, 1959...GRANDJEAN, CAPTAIN Charles Retired..." [06DEC2004]
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1925 - 1959 (33 years)
