1971 B-52C Lake Michigan crash
Though it had been an ally against Germany and Japan during World War II, by 1948 the Soviet Union showed a propensity to instigate problems with Britain, France and the United States.Some of the aircraft stationed at Westover were loaned to other bases during the late 1960s and early 1970s, due to SAC use of later model B-52s in combat in Southeast Asia, beginning with Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965.Bay Shore was a radar site operated by Air Force technicians using electronic equipment designed to track, plot, score and at the same time jam the capability of bombers using its associated Olive Branch low level route.The crew members consisted of aircraft commander Lt. Col William Lemmon, co-pilot Lt. Douglas Bachman, radar navigator Cap.[3] After taking off from Westover Air Force Base at 1:30 pm EST, the "Hiram 16" crew completed a mandatory practice refueling procedure with its accompanying KC-135 Stratotanker.By 6 p.m. EST the bomber had successfully completed, and scored as 'positive,' the laying down of two electronic bombs at Bay Shore Ob-9 Route targets Echo and Foxtrot.The bomber then proceeded to circle to its entry spot at the top of Lake Michigan to make its second and final bomb scoring run north to south towards Big Rock Point where targets Delta and Charlie were located.From July 1963, most low-level training flight bomber crews had been using the large green dome of the nuclear power plant as a sight target since flying directly over the Bay Shore radar site did not give the ground technicians the ability to properly score the planes.As early as November 1963 Consumers Power officials were complaining about the overflights stating in one letter that they posed an exceedingly high risk factor in the event of a crash into its facility.The B-52C was traveling at 365 mph (317 kn; 587 km/h) when the main spar in its left wing suffered a major structural failure, causing a complete loss of pilot control.
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