Republic F-84G Thunderjet #51-10202 crashed July 23, 1953, 13 miles west of Gila Bend, Arizona

Summary: Sergeant Pierre Silvester Vermeire, a Belgian cadet training at Luke Air Force Base, was on a routine gunnery mission on the Goldwater Range practicing rocket passes on a target. He noticed his fuel gauge indicated that his main fuel tanks were empty, so after informing his Instructor, he did as he was advised and switched to wing tip tanks. Everything then seemed normal and his flight continued. His Instructor then asked him to switch back to "All Tanks", but he did not hear this request. At the same time, the range officer asked him to check his tip tanks. There were a number of people trying to offer advice and jamming up the radio wave which precluded Sgt. Vermeire to get through to anyone and get the advice he needed. After climbing to 9,000 feet, he experienced a flameout and elected to eject. Investigators at the crash scene determined that the tip tanks had run dry, causing the flameout, but that the main tanks still had over 1200 pounds of fuel onboard. Due to the faulty main tank gauge, Sgt. Vermeire thought the aircraft was completely out of fuel, so he choose to jump. It is interesting to note in the report that the investigators thought he may have been a bit hasty to eject as he was a former paratrooper with eight jumps, and apparently had no fear of adding one more.

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