William R Becraft
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1934 - Suffern, Rockland Co, NY 1
Christening:
Death: 7 Feb 1962 - Chelveston AFB, England 1
Burial:
Cause of Death:
AFN :
Events
• Military
http://www.b66.info/DeathsbyB-66-Operations.htm• Military
BECRAFT, William R., 54-0460, 7 Feb 1962, Chelveston, UK,
1st Lt., EWO, age 27, Suffern, NY, wife-Jean Ann Becraft
RB-66C Crash at Chelveston, UK
by Gerry Parker
An RB-66C (54-460) that crashed at Chelveston, Spring 62 (02/07/1962). The entire crew was: pilot - Skip Jones (who was also maintenance officer), nav - Richard "Moose" Morris, gunner - Leroy Dauphenbaugh; Ravens - Bill Becraft, Jim Weymark, Reynolds McCabe, and Norbert "Nez" Maier. Nez Maier, Skip Jones and Dick Morris survived the crash. Later Dick Morrid was killed in an F-100 crash at Poinsett range just SW of Shaw AFB, SC.
Smith ejected but hit the ground in his seat because he grabbed the seat handles with his palms facing out and apparently could not get loose from the seat. Moose, something of an athlete, got out OK. Nez's hatch came off but his seat did not fire either. The Raven 4 (Becraft) thought that everyone in the back had ejected and called Skip that all were out except him, then ejected. Skip's seat did not fire, either - I forget why.
Since Skip was still aboard and the engines were still running at idle, he was able to reach the controls with some effort (remember that the seat and controls both stow when the left handle is operated) and get the plane on the ground in the field off the end of the Chelveston runway. The plane was seriously damaged when one of the wings clipped an old concrete bunker in the field but the fuselage held together.
Skip and Nez both climbed out the top, both quite surprised to see each other, and ran as the rear fuel tank was ruptured and caught fire. The fireman got that out before too long but the whole tank area was melted down to the bottom stringers when I saw the airplane. I was part of a crew that covered up the classified equipment before we let the press in to see the wreckage. There were pieces all along about a 300-400 yard path where it slid on the field. I played tennis with McCabe and knew him pretty well. Also, Smith had been on a crew with me at one time. It was the first time one of my friends was killed while flying so I remember it pretty clearly, even today.
Additional Information from Gerry Parker
The EWO's were Norbert "Nez" Maier (who survived), Reynolds McCabe (with whom I played tennis - he was a top-notch player, I was not), James Weymark and, as you noted, Bill Beecraft, Raven 4. The gunner was "Big" Smith, a large man about 6'4". (Smith was a member of our (John Risploi's) crew when we flew with Glen York/George Canterbury.) It was found that Smith rode his seat to ground. He inserted his hands into the handholds backwards in order to keep his elbows from hitting the sides on the hatch on the way out. The investigators speculated that he could not let go of the seat and, as you recall, the chute was deployed by the seat falling away and pulling the rip cord via the "zero" lanyard. Moose Morris, the navigator and something of an athlete and a smaller man, tried to beat the seat to the rip cord, landed on the field and walked into base ops. The 3 EWO's who successfully ejected hit the ground still in their seats. The aircraft subsequently landed, with Skip keeping the wings level, in the a farmers field beyond the end of the runway. A fire broke out and the rear fuselage fuel tank was consumed by the fire. The fire trucks got there in time to save the rest of the aircraft, although it was totaled. I was part a team that went to the site immediately after the crash and covered up every classified item before the press was allowed into the accident scene. There were pieces of airplane along a path several hundred yards long. There was also an old concrete bunker in the field left over from WWII. I do not recall if the aircraft hit the bunker or not, but I don't think it did since the aircraft slid to a stop along a straight line and was still pretty well lined up with the landing path. The only saving grace is that the engines did not quit altogether so Skip still had hydraulic power to the controls, once he was able to reach them. Neither he nor Nez knew that there was anyone else in the aircraft until both of them climbed out on top after the aircraft came to a stop.
A later briefing on the fuel filter by our local Douglas tech rep, Mr. Green, was very interesting. Early B-66's were fitted with a non-bypass fuel filter. A flight of 4 B-66's from Gander (I think) to Shaw started experiencing flame-outs after reaching altitude. Of a total of 8 engines, 7 flamed out at one time or another, although all landed safely at various places. As a result, a bypass fuel filter with a spring loaded screen was designed and the entire inventory of non-bypass screens was ordered destroyed. This was not done. The Chelveston accident aircraft has recently been to Tulsa for IRAN and had two of the old non-bypass filters. Outside temperature conditions were just right for fuel icing.
Regarding low approaches, my recollection is that the altitude restriction did not come out until after that accident. The minimum ejection altitude was 400 feet for the back end at that time. After the accident, Joe Wagner made a number of passes using the same profile to establish the altitude at which Skip's crew ejected. I believe that it was determined to be either 550 or 600 feet, supposedly high enough. Also, I believe a few months later a C model from Shaw ran low on fuel over the Atlantic due to a refueling malfunction and the pilot elected to bail out the crew from about 5,000 feet. The EWO's reported significant difficulty in getting rid of their seats, even from a high altitude, so this gave the "butt kicker" an even greater urgency. After our accident, an immediate altitude restriction on downward ejections was implemented, later to become 2,000 feet when the "butt kicker" was installed.
I left the B-66 in September of 1963 and never got in one again. I would be interested in hearing how the ejection seats performed in Vietnam.
Regarding Ron Hand, he is an Aggie so I looked him up in the latest Aggie directory of former students. Unfortunately, he is listed as "address unknown." I did find one former student with an e-mail address who is about the right age to be his son and wrote him a note. We'll see if anything comes back.
A write up of Bob Belcher's last flight can be viewed at: http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/b/b370.htm
Postscript by Bob Long
Skip Jones made BGen or more in the Natl Guard over (I think) in Memphis.The three EWO's who didn't make it were just 20 or so feet too low. Their chutes were just starting to deploy when they hit on or beside the runway. That took care of the 400' rule for most of us... the higher the better.
Postscript by Jim Barbee
The Rushden Heritage Centre has numerous items are on display regarding Chelveston and other bases in Northamptonshire. One item of interest was a clipping from the Wednesday, February 7, 1962 Evening Telegraph Newpaper about the RB-66 Crash at RAFChelveston. This report was coordinated with and by Capt Robert Bussjaeger Wing Information Officer. The report states the names of the Officers killed as lst Lt James T. Weymark (26), Radar Operator, lst Lt William R. Becraft, (27), Radar Operator, lst Lt Renolds W. McCabe, Radar Operator, and SSgt Le Roy Daughenbaugh, Jr, (28) Flight Engineer. Injured Capt Charles E. Jones, III (30) Pilot, lst Lt Richard A. Morris (26) and lst Lt Norbert J. Maier (25) Radar Operator. The article states the crash happened at eigth minutes to two. There is more in the story, eye witnesses, etc. There are more newspaper articles about the incident but dates of print not listed.
Parents
Father: William Hetzel Becraft 1
Mother: Frances Riggs 1
Spouses and Children
1. *Jean Anne Tillman
Children:
1. Phillip Becraft
2. Nancy Becraft
3. Danny Becraft
Sources
1. David (David Wallace
email: davidmw00@yahoo.com).