F-4 Phantom II Crash
Video from the channel Señor Onion’s Archives about McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 2:24. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
Brief piece narrating, with period footage, the crash of a newly built McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II during its second test flight, in March 1968.
Before being delivered to the U.S. military, each aircraft underwent ground and flight tests. On this flight, a civilian test pilot and a radar observer were on board.
Immediately after takeoff, the aircraft entered an almost vertical climb. At about 150 feet it pitched up excessively, both crew members ejected, and the aircraft stalled and fell. It was destroyed, and firefighters covered the wreckage with foam. Both crew members emerged unharmed and were exonerated: a technician had left a rivet gun in the rear fuselage, which had jammed the control cable.