Great aerial/aviation rescues?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

This is a blatant bid for help from an audience of aviation experts that I have gone to in the past for advice and assistance on magazine articles I've written.

I am currently beginning to research a piece for Aviation History Magazine on "the 10 Greatest Aviation Rescues," and I'm looking for suggestions. There were a number of major SAR operations in Vietnam, also some during the Korean War and of course WWII. There have been some incredible high-altitude rescues in the Himalayas by Nepali helicopters...USCG helos and rescue swimmers...certainly some domestic rescues by the CAP and other agencies...

In short, I'm looking for suggestions of examples of great aviation rescues.

[quemerford]

I'd look beyond the more obvious: some incredible rescues in the Middle East (Mesopotamia/Palestine etc) from circa 1915 onwards. I also recall a Bristol Scout rescue in the Dardanelles (1916?), where the pilot rescued a fellow aircrew by laying him inside the aft fuselage (I think the latter was a VC action, so easy enough to research).

Remember that these were rescues by aircraft never designed to lift more than one man, and in my book rate far more of a mention than those of more recent times, where dedicated aircraft and top cover was often available. I'm certainly not decrying the more recent rescues, just making a much-needed statement for oft-forgotten aviators 100-odd years ago.

Heroism in the air didn't start at WW2.

[APG85]

The Search, Rescue and Recovery of Congressman Mickey Leland in Ethiopia in 1989 was an enormous effort (the largest up to that time) and put the USAF Pararescue personnel through a grueling ordeal. There is a lot of references about it but one of the best accounts is here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=XpECr ... ue&f=false

[quemerford]

The Bristol Scout VC action was by Sqn Cdr Richard Bell-Davies of 3 Sqn, RNAS on 19th November 1915. He rescued Flight Sub Lieutenant GF Smylie. If you look at a GA and dimensions of the Bristol Scout you'll see how beyond-belief it would be for it to carry two men, let alone just one!

Hope this serves as a helpful starting point. There are many other astonishing rescues from this time.

[CoastieJohn]

No doubt there's many acts of aviation rescue heroism out there. My frame of reference would be CG related. Here's a couple of the top of my head.

- The Duck Hunt/PN9E survival and rescue (Pritchard and Bottoms were considered for the MOH posthumously).
- The Prinsendam rescue (http://www.alaska.net/~jcassidy/pop-mech.htm)

You can go to the CG Ptero site and go through the list of awards and read the citations the individuals received. Go to the drop down menu and start at the Silver Star. Those 4 Coasties were exchange pilots in VN flying the combat rescue H3's or Jolly Greens. The DFC has alot of great rescue citations to go thru.

http://uscgaviationhistory.aoptero.org/ ... select.cfm

[Matt Gunsch]

One I would include would be the first helicopter rescue, it took place in April 1944
http://cbi-theater-3.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-3/hoverfly/hoverfly.html

[Dan Jones]

The rescue of Skyraider pilot Maj D.W. Myers in the A Shau Valley in March of 1966 by Major Bernard Fisher. Myers bellied on an abandoned airfield after being hit by flak and Fisher landed his Skyraider, picked him up, and took off again while continuously under fire. The airplane took multiple small arms hits and is today preserved in the Air Force museum at Dayton. Fisher won the Congressional Medal of Honor.

[JohnB]

When I was a kid, I read several books on the subject.
One involved the USAF in the late 40s.
IIRC, a C-47 force landed on the Greenland icecap. A SB-17 went to rescue them but got stuck. They tried WACO CG-4s (little known fact: some were kept as post-war rescue craft). They too had issues.
In the end, a RATO-equipped SC-47 flew everyone off...by the time the number of people needing rescue about doubled because of the number of would-be rescuers.

I've always wondered if the B-17 is still out there.

If anyone can find more info on this, I'd appreciate it.

Since I originally posted this, I found a newsreel of the event.
I'm shocked I remembered it so clearly...

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/arcti ... -us-airmen

[TAdan]

I learned about this one from a show on the History Channel. Gauli Glacier C-53 crash in the Alps and rescue operation. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_C-5 ... li_Glacier The Swiss were able to ferry everyone off the glacier with a Storch.

Last edited by TAdan on Sun Feb 15, 2015 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

[TAdan]

N/m

[daviemax]

When I was a kid, I read several books on the subject.
One involved the USAF in the late 40s.
IIRC, a C-47 force landed on the Greenland icecap. A SB-17 went to rescue them but got stuck. They tried WACO CG-4s (little known fact: some were kept as post-war rescue craft). They too had issues.
In the end, a RATO-equipped SC-47 flew everyone off...by the time the number of people needing rescue about doubled because of the number of would-be rescuers.

I've always wondered if the B-17 is still out there.

If anyone can find more info on this, I'd appreciate it.

Since I originally posted this, I found a newsreel of the event.
I'm shocked I remembered it so clearly...

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/arcti ... -us-airmen

Here is the SB-17, 44-83724, down on the ice. She was landed without skis and hit a solid block of ice which severely damaged the #2 engine, nacelle, and LH main gear. I believe she was later salvaged, but do not have solid proof of that yet.

[Pathfinder]

Night of D-1/D-Day USAAF Pathfinder plane Chalk 4 ingests flak enroute to west side of Normandy peninsula turns out of pattern and finally ditches mid-Channel.
Can you imagine ditching a C-47 at night in combat operations in a storm tossed sea? And upon seeing a rescue ship come out of the fog the deck crew yells out, "Shoot the bastards...they're Krauts!" Fortunately....they didn't!
Full crew and passengers recovered by HMS TARTAR. Capt. Cecil Jones cmdg. Invasion screening element DESRON10 which included HMCS HAIDA still afloat on the Toronto waterfront.

[Ken]

Vietnam: BAT 21, Col William Jones MOH, Boxer 22, Streetcar 304, the list goes on.

Ken

[spartakle]

The Jimmie Doolittle episode during WWII where he & crew ditched a B-17 in the Pacific and survived a lengthy ordeal in rubber rafts before rescue would get my nod as one of the more dramatic.

[Cvairwerks]

From Korea, you have Robbie Risner pushing the F-86 of his wing man, Joseph Logan F-86 out of North Korea in an attempt to save him. Tragically, Logan drowned after surviving the ejection into the ocean.

From Vietnam, Bob Pardo pushed his wingman's F-4, 88 miles out of North Vietnam and into Laos, before all 4 aircrew had to eject. Pardo and his backseater, Steve Wayne, were awarded the Silver Star in 1989 for the rescue.