VIDEO: Did You Know A B52 Crashed on Elephant Mountain in Maine?
History time!
Northern Maine is the home of a rare B52 Stratofortress crash site. In 1963, a US Air Force Boeing B-52C Stratofortress with nine crew members on board lost its vertical stabilizer at low altitude and crashed into Elephant Mountain in Piscataquis County, six miles from Greenville. Seven crew members died, and the pilot and navigator survived the accident.
Alexander Bertoni shared this video on Vimeo and explores the crash site.
From the video description:
In January of 1963, a B 52 Stratofortress crashed into the remote Maine woods during a test exercise. Turbulence stripped the 360,000 pound aircraft of its vertical stabilizer, causing the plane to plummet into the heavily forested area. Seven of the nine crew died, six of them without being able to eject from the plane. The seventh struck a tree and died instantly. Despite the bitterly cold winter, the pilot and the navigator were able to survive thanks to the tireless work of nearly 80 rescue workers, who fought their way through fifteen foot snow drifts to reach the crew.
Today, flags adorn the wreckage strewn throughout the forest. Some of it was recovered as salvage shortly after the crash, but it has since been returned as a memorial and museum to the event. In 2013, the pilot even returned for the 50th anniversary of the event, he himself having spent only three months recovering before returning to active duty."
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