INto the Sea
"Man overboard!" shouted the navigator of the WB-29 as soon as he caught his voice.
Seconds before, he had watched his friend step through the pressure bulkhead door. For no OBVIOUS reason the bomb bay doors flew open and at the same time he saw his friend fall through space grabbing for something to hang on to. As his friend, Capt. Wallace M. Taylor, turned in the air, the navigator saw him grab for his ripcord once, miss, grab again and pull.
Captain Taylor, assigned to Flight A, Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, was flying as weather observer on this regular weather reconnaissance mission from Bermuda. He had gone back to the forward bomb bay where he saw shimmering liquid on the far ledge of the bomb bay under the fuel filler neck.
Believing that it might be gasoline, Captain Taylor reported to the aircraft commander: "I think I'll check in the bomb bay for a possible fuel leak," he advised Captain Donald R. Walterhouse.
He turned and grabbed his dinghy. Passing the navigator, Captain George Blackstone, he asked, "Will you fasten this for me, George?" Because Captain Blackstone was busy completing entries in his log he said, "Just a minute."
"That's O. K., won't need it anyway," and Captain Taylor started through the hatch. Noting Taylor's reluctance to wait, Captain Blackstone grabbed him and said, "I'll do it now," and proceeded to snap the dinghy on.
Captain Walterhouse up front in the left seat of WB-29 felt the jar of the bomb bay doors opening and heard the rush of air. At the same time he saw the amber light come on indicating the doors were open. He turned his head. Light streamed in through the open bulkhead. Then the shout rang out: "Man overboard!"
The plane had just climbed through 7,000 feet altitude. Now Captain Walterhouse called for r.p.m. 2,000, bomb bay doors closed and reduced power for descent. Picking up the mike he called "MAY DAY" and described the emergency.
Thirty miles away Bermuda Control Radar picked up the call of May Day and pinpointed the location of the WB-29. Within 2 minutes a rescue plane, warming up to take off at the end of the runway, sped toward the falling man.
Meantime, Captain Walterhouse orbited in a left circle around the slowly descending parachute. Left scanner S.Sgt. William Whitfield constantly kept Taylor's chute in view.
As Taylor hit the water the crew lost sight of him. For five tension filled minutes they circled trying to locate him. A C-54, piloted by Captain Edward L. Berkley, returning to Kindley from Lajes, Azores was near enough to sight a blotch of sea marker dye take shape on the sea and then he sighted the raft.
The 20 foot swells added to the rescue problem. In fact, at the peak of the swell in the 34 knot wind, Taylor could not manage at first to remain in the raft.
He had fastened the parachute harness to his raft in case he might need it later. Once, when he was thrown out, his leg hit the harness. "Thinking it might be a shark, I almost panicked," Taylor stated. "Later I became too sick to care about my predicament which probably kept me from greater panic or shock. Maybe it was just as well," he added.
Airplanes overhead soon arrived in great numbers. Air Rescue Service (ARS) had to request that some leave before they were able to fly in and drop larger rafts near Taylor.
ARS managed to get a large raft near Taylor and he grabbed for it. At the same time the gusting winds lifted the raft high into to air, then rolled it out of sight.
Back on the shore telephones alerted Kindley AFB's 60-foot crash boat. The crash boat, skippered by M/Sgt. William Gross, and carrying a crew of six, took a terrific beating on the way to the scene. Violent seas ripped away portions of the bow rail.
The Canadian frigate "Toronto" also sped toward the scene. As the "Toronto" neared Taylor, the big ship was steered in a wide circle around the airman.
"That circle," Captain Walterhouse stated, "seemed to flatten the churning seas and almost like clockwork the crash boat sped in and picked Tayor up."
Except for the violent seasickness, the downed airman was none the worse for wear. It was at 8:56 in the morning when Taylor had taken off in the WB-29. At 9:09 he had fallen out and at 11:38 in the morning he was safely aboard the Kindley crash boat.
What caused the bomb bay doors to open?
The bomb bay emergency release "T" handle is located where one would normally place his right foot when stepping through the bomb bay door. But to open the bomb bay doors the "T" handle must be pulled up a considerable distance.
Catching a heel on the "T" handle would have unlocked the doors, particularly if there was too much tension in the cables. Once unlocked, the doors are so designed that slipstream over the rear deflector plates will pop them open.
Captain Taylor stated that he "didn't know exactly what happened." After starting through the hatch he next realized that he was in mid air with the plane above.
Had the weather observer failed to use any part of his equipment he may not have been here today.
A lion's share of the rescue credit goes to the men of the crash boat who braved the fury of the sea to save a fellow airman. Captain Taylor expressed his greatest
appreciation to the crash boat crew. When it comes to accidents, Captain Taylor will verify it's not impossible to be that one man in a million.
From The MATS Flyer July 1955