Posted by Charles Lee on March 04, 2003 at 19:44:22:
I was just surfing, and came upon a message on this board about a
B-52 mid-air explosion at Skiatook, Oklahoma in 1958. I am 62 now, but
was 17 years old at the time. An adult friend of mine owned a Piper,
PA-20 Pacer, and I was at his radio-tv shop on that afternoon in March
1958 when someone called him and said they had seen an explosion in the
sky, south of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He asked me if I wanted to go
with him to check it out? I said sure and we went to the Bartlesville
airport and took off in his plane. We flew south, and by radio heard a
plane had crashed at Skiatook. We headed due south for about 35 miles
and found the wreck site. It was on the north side of State Highway 20,
about a mile east of downtown Skiatook, the major part of the wreckage
was located on the north side of the road. When we flew over,...we saw
multiple orange and white parachutes hanging from trees and in a muddy
field. The forward or cockpit portion of the aircraft was in one piece,
all the rest being blown into literally "tinsel" sized pieces. The
cockpit portion looked intanct, except it appeared "smashed". If I
remember correctly, a house at that location had a main landing gear
strut and "boogey" go through the roof. At the time we arrived, the
local police and fire were trying to drive through the muddy field to
get to the location and were having a difficult time. As I remember, I
don't think there were any survivors. We saw a number of parachutes and
"bodies" on the ground,..but they weren't moving. Somewhere in my
things, I have a few photos I took that day,...but I can't put my hands
on them now. I hope someone finds this first hand report interesting.