THE POST-STANDARD
SYRACUSE, N.Y., THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 1972
Pilots Parachute to Safety
Air Guard Jets Crash
MEXICO - Two Air National Guard fighter pilots parachuted to safety near this Oswego County village moments after the midair collision of their two planes yesterday.
One plane exploded seconds after the pilot ejected. Maj. Edward R. Trudeau, 37, of 112 Colony Park Drive, Liverpool, and Capt. Carrol J. Gary, 32 of Jamesburg, N.J., were returned to Hancock Field by a state police helicopter where they were examined and debriefed after the mishap, which occurred about 2:15 p.m.
According to Col. Curtis J. Irwin, commanding officer of the174th Tactical Fighter Group, better known as the "Boys from Syracuse," the two planes were flying in formation with two other A-37 twin-engine jets when Gary's plane developed a malfunction in the fuel system.
Gary's plane then slid sideways into the lead plane, piloted by Trudeau, Irwin said. The planes crashed nearly a mile from each other, east of this village. The four craft had taken off from Hancock field and were bound for a gunnery mission at Antwerp, near Camp Drum, when the planes collided.
Each plane was carrying 100 rounds of 7.65mm minigun ammunition which was to be used to strafe targets. The planes also carried 25 pound practice bombs, equipped with smoke charges.
After the collision, according to Trudeau, his plane became engulfed in flames and he bailed out. Gary, noticing his own craft was burning, also ejected. Gary's craft nosed into Tubbs Road, west of Route 11, leaving a crater about 20 feet long, 10 feet wide and 4 feet deep in the road. Wreckage was scattered more than 500 feet from the point of impact.
Trudeau's plane crashed about 500 feet off Route 104, almost midway between Maple View and Mexico. Both pilots parachuted into open farm fields about a mile apart.
Air National Guard members and state troopers sealed off the area for Air Force investigators. According to Irwin, the results of the investigation will not be known for several weeks.
Mrs. Nancy Welch, a nearby resident, said she heard one of the planes (Trudeau's) explode. "I heard a 'pop' and a 'bang'. I looked up and there was a big ball of red and I knew it (the plane) apparently blew up," she said. The plane disintegrated in a ball of flame, she said, as it buried itself in the ground near her barn. Each pilot was alone in his aircraft. Irwin noted that while the planes are two-seaters, it is very rare for the National Guard to have a second man flying. The second seat, he said, is only used by observers on tactical missions.
The value of the planes was set at $400,000 each.
Trudeau has been a member of the Guard since 1954. He is a full-time civilian employee at Hancock Field with the Federal Aviation Administration as an air traffic controller.
Gary is a four-year veteran of the Guard. He is a pilot for Eastern Air Lines.
Col. Joseph DeVona, Chief of maintenance for the Air National Guard at Syracuse, came to the crash scene.
Investigation at the scene was handled by Senior Investigator Thomas Donohue and Investigators J.M. Doyle, C.F. Nellis and H.E. Christenson of the state police and Oswego County Sheriff's Investigators Robert Wheeler and Thomas Tifke.
The Mexico Fire Department, under Chief Everett Backus, sprayed foam on both planes to extinguish small fires.
SYRACUSE HERALD-JOURNAL
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1972
Probers sift wreckage of 2 jets' mid-air crash
Investigators today were collecting wreckage from rolling farmland in Oswego County in an effort to pinpoint the cause of yesterday's mid-air collision between two Air National Guard jets from Hancock Airbase.
The crash touched off an ear-splitting explosion as the jets slammed to earth in flames and homes near Mexico.
Shaken Up
The two pilots, one a civilian air traffic controller and the other a commercial airlines pilot, escaped injury when they ejected from the aircraft seconds after the collision.
Maj, Edward Trudeau, 37, of Liverpool, an air controller at Hancock Airport, and Capt. Carroll J. Gary, 32, of Jamesburg, N.J., a pilot or Eastern Airlines, were "shaken up" but otherwise unhurt in the accident.
Air Guard officials said the accident occurred as four twin-engine A-37 jets of the 174th Tactical Fighter Squadron were flying in formation to practice strafing runs at a range on the edge of the Camp Drum military reservation. They speculated a fuel problem may have triggered the collision.
Trudeau told authorities he bailed out when his plane burst into flames. Gary said his jet started to burn and he ejected from it.
One pilot landed near Mapleview, and the other came down about a mile from the wreckage of his craft. Both were picked up by a state police helicopter and taken to the dispensary at Camp Drum.
Arms Explode
Trudeau's plane crashed about 500 feet of Rt. 104, midway between Mapleview and Mexico. Police at the scene said some of the 7.62 mm. small arms ammunition the plane was carrying apparently exploded shortly after impact. The planes reportedly were carrying several hundred rounds of ammunition for there nose guns and several "practice" bombs consisting of smoke grenades detonated by a shotgun-type shell.
Gary's plane disintegrated as it hit three-quarters of a mile north of the first plane, plowing into the side of Tubbs Road. The wreckage left a crater about 20 feet long, 10 feet wide and four feet deep. Debris was scattered more than 500 feet.
Investigators said Gary's plane appeared to have "nosed in" while Trudeau's apparently fell almost straight down. The tail section of Trudeau's plane landed almost a mile south of the rest of the debris.
Hears Blast
"It sounded like the sound barrier being broken! I looked up and saw a plane nosing down," an eyewitness, Mrs. Dorothy Seaman said. "the plane blew up immediately," she said of the jet she saw crash.
Mrs. Ronald Granger, who lives on Tubbs Road, said her husband and a neighbor thought a plane had broken the sound barrier when the explosion shook her house. "That's no sound barrier," Mrs. Granger said as she ran outside the house.
Spirals Downward
The noise she heard apparently was the crash of the first plane. She said she saw the other plane "still flying low, then it spiraled down and his nose first," on Tubbs Road.
"It was just like in the movies, except different. I thought someone was in it, then I saw the two parachutes come down," Mrs. Granger said.
4/15/2002
I went up to Mexico today to see if I could spot some wreckage from this incident. I was driving down Tubbs road and spotted the Granger Tree Farm. When I stopped I saw several people in the driveway, the Grangers. I had talked to them a few days before. They said that the wreck happened up the hill from their house, in the nearby woods. Their son said that he spotted a piece of the wreckage that was caught up in a tree since the crash, and would show me where it was.
I followed their truck to the woods. They had recently sold the house that was there. We pulled up and the owners dog greeted us as we got out of our vehicles. We walked towards the spot of the wreckage, but no one could spot it. We decided to look at the base of the trees and there was the wreckage. Apparently after 30 years, this winters wind was too strong, and the piece came down. The plane was spinning down, clipped the trees, and plowed into Tubbs road. Almost nothing was left of the plane. Amazing this piece survived to this day!
Scene of plane crash.
