F-104G, #63-8466

HISTORY OF FLIGHT:   It was 10:20 am on October 29, 1969, when instructor pilot Major Richard Doucette, and 2Lt. Manfred Peters, a West German student pilot,  gently increased the throttle and lifted off in their F-104G Starfighter, call sign "squirt", from Luke AFB.  Taking-off from runway 03R, they climbed to the proper altitude and took a heading for a place known as "area 8",about 15 miles SE of Ajo, Arizona used for training.  Squirt arrived into "area 8" cruising at 14,000ft. where they performed aileron rolls, barrel rolls and VFR unusual altitudes training.  Doucette coached Peters through these maneuvers and then decided to move north to another area for more training.  Upon arriving in the area, Major Doucette had Lt. Peters initiate a dive to gain airspeed for a loop.  He increased airspeed to 480 knots and selected afterburner and started the loop at 11,000ft.  As the aircraft was approaching 19,000ft with an airspeed of 200 knots, Major Doucette noticed there was a problem with the oil pressure and took control of the aircraft and initiated a roll-out and picked up a heading for Gila Bend AAF.  As Lt. Peters observed the cockpit controls, his heartbeat quickened as he noticed that the NOQIS low-level light was on, engine oil pressure zero and the low-level oil light was on.  Major Doucette then shut off the afterburner, set the power to 83% and maintained an airspeed of 220-230 knots while sending a distress call of "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" followed with his call sign, location and aircraft problem.  As Doucette was instructing Peters to prepare for a bailout, they received acknowledgements from their distress call from Gila Bend and Davis-Monthan towers and were informed they were scrambling planes to their location.  Following this transmission, heavy engine vibrations started and Doucette shut down the engine and told Peters they were to bailout now!  He told Peters to pull the "canopy jettison" handle and bail out 5 seconds after he did.  Lt. Peters commented "Good luck, see you on the ground", then heard Major Doucette's ejection, waited, and then prepared for his own, noting the altitude was 15,000ft.  Holding the stick with one hand for level flight, he pulled the "canopy jettison" and felt his ejection sequence start, then shoot him into the sky, followed by seat/man separation (in F-104 ejection seats, the pilot's ankles, waist and shoulder's are strapped to the seat, and the straps and seat fall away from the pilot when a small "release charge" is set off seconds after the ejection, that would release the straps and allow the pilot to fall free of the straps and seat, and then allow him to pull the ripcord), then the jerk of the parachute opening.  As Lt. Peters floated down, he looked for Major Doucette's chute but couldn't see any sign of him.  At this point, he knew something went terribly wrong as they had bailed out 3 miles high and he certainly should have seen the instructor's chute below him.  The only thing Lt. Peters saw was the F-104 flying north in a slight dive and then disappear behind a ridge, followed by a loud explosion.  As he landed, a pair of F-100's entered the area and located the F-104 crash and  Lt. Peter's chute, but wondered where was Doucette's chute?  

   As it happened, Major Doucette had ejected properly, but the seat had malfunctioned and the explosive charges had not gone off that would have allowed the straps to come undone.  Instead, he was  trapped to the seat for a fatal plunge.   The accident investigation team and surgeon's medical report had proved that Major Doucette had fought the entire way down to try and free himself from the straps and had actually succeeded, but at an altitude too close to the ground and was unable to pull the ripcord in time.  

THE SEARCH FOR THE CRASH SITE OF "466"

  I had been advised of a crash in this area by a co-worker who had flown over this area while in military training years ago and he had reported seeing what he swore was a F-104 tail in a remote part of the desert.  I conferred with my wreckchasing "colleague" Craig Fuller, of AAIR, and we determined a possible crash site from our collective data pool and applied for the report, hoping it was the correct one.   When it arrived, myself with Craig and Heidi Fuller got the early morning start of 11am the following saturday and headed for the deserts east of Ajo to see just what we could find.  The crash report gave an approximate location, but from past experience we knew it could be off by as much as 10 miles!  As it turns out, this one was way off also.  We scoured the massive mountain range with our binoculars looking for any trace of anything that didn't fit in.  Finally, after not seeing anything after hours of surveying, except cattle more cholla cactus than I care for, we called it a night.

  A few weeks later I got an itch to give it one more shot before it got too hot and headed off alone as Craig was busy.  I decided to go with the info I had been told about by my co-worker instead of what the crash report said, as I wasn't even sure this was the same plane in the report, and I didn't feel like hiking quite a few miles out of my way only to find where the plane wasn't(I have also become an expert at finding where plane crashes aren't!).  After hiking and driving for a few hours, I decided it was time to get out and hike, despite the fact it was 95 degrees and I was in the middle of what might be Arizona's largest cholla cactus forest!   Hiking in all directions for a few hours, up and down the hills and in the washes, I would occasionally scope the mountain looking for anything out of place.  Finally, as I gazed at a peak over 1.5 miles away, I caught a tiny silver speck of what looked suspicious.  A few minutes later, the speck was gone, but I remembered where I had seen it and headed off in that direction.  As I got closer I couldn't make anything out and was ready to call it quits as I've seen flat-faced rocks with the sun's reflection trick me before.  I decided to hike up the mountain side and just kill my curiosity as I knew I would be thinking about it if I didn't.  As I climbed high over a ridge(with cholla needles sticking in my shoe and my knuckles bloodied from stopping a fall!), I saw in the distance what I knew was a tip-tank!  I scurried as fast as I could over to the area and immediately started finding parts of aircraft skin with zinc chromate paint, what an awesome feeling to find a needle in a haystack!  

   What had happened with the silver speck I had seen was that the sun's reflection off the metal happened to shine in my direction for a few minutes.  As the sun moved, so did the "glint".  I was amazingly lucky to have been in that spot when I was or I would still be out there looking for this aircraft( sorry, but I did move this part).  Even as I left the crash, I followed the same path I had taken in to see if any glint was visible from the sun's rays on the wreckage, but there wasn't any.   I must have been very lucky to have been where I was to see the glint coming in-talk about luck!

   As I walked through the wreckage, I saw where the plane impacted and then exploded, spewing parts over the hillside.  Engine here, wing there, control surfaces, etc...  As I walked around, I was almost certain I was the first one to be at the site since the Air Force accident team was there 31 years ago.  There were military water and food cans as well as "yellowed" plastic forks near an old campfire.  Inspecting the cockpit impact area, I saw a rudder pedal with "Lockheed" etched on it, a few gauges and the "canopy jettison" handle that Doucette or Peters would have used during bailout  Moving on, I came across the entire tail section with the vertical and horizontal intact, although battered.  Inspection of the faded serial number confirmed that this was indeed the Doucette/Peters F-104.  After looking around and taking many photographs, I called it a day and headed back to the truck where I had a cooler of ice-cold water and soda calling my name.   After taking the cholla needles and rocks out of my shoes, I sat back and relaxed for a while, thinking about the events surrounding this crash and how some day I'd like to return.  

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