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Miraculous Landing Made by Plane With Telephone Repairman
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We practiced making turns
by manipulating the throttles
and ailerons. We decided that
Capt. R. E. McKenna, 48.
learned to fly while an
Army enlisted man in Ha
waii in 1935. He served as a
fighter pilot during World
War II and joined Untied
Air Lines in 1945. During
ihe Korean conflict he flew
Military Air Transport serv
ice planes. A resident oi San
Jose, Calif., he and his wife
have four children.
Until he was 13, McKen
na's home was in the New
York borough of the Bronx,
a few blocks from the
Bronx Zoo (on 181st st. and
on 163rd st.) Then his family
lived in Kearny. N.J. His
mother, Mrs. Henry Ander
son, now resides in Ocean
Grove, N.J.
we could attempt a landing if
we found the right airport.
Fortunately the ideal field
was only about 15 miles away
- Mather Air Force base. It
has an 11,000-foot runway, 300
feet wide and good emergency
equipment. And the wind was
TAIL ASSEMBLY LOST This United
Air Lines DC7 took off from Fresno, Calif.,
Oct. 13. en route to Oregon via Sacra
mento, Calif., with 34 telephone repairmen
aboard being sent to repair storm damage.
Near Sacramento the airliner's rudder and
most of its vertical stabilizer unaccountably
tore away from the tail assembly. In what a
CAB spokesman called "a near miracle" the
aircraft commander, Capt. R. E. McKenna,
made an emergency landing that left all
aboard unscathed. (TJP1 photo)
Editor's note - You're
piloting a DC7 and you have
34 passengers behind you
on an emergency flight.
Suddenly the rudder and
stabilizer snap off. A night-'
mare? It happened for real
Oct. 13 on a United Air
Lines flight from Fresno.
Calif., to Oregon carrying
telephone company repair
men into the storm-wracked
northwest. Near Sacramen
to. Calif., the tail assembly
ripped apart. Aircraft com
mander R. E. McKenna, 48,
a native of the Bronx, N.Y..
made a "near-miracle" land
ing. Here is his story.)
By CAPT. R. E. McKENNA
As told to
United Press International
' San Jose, Calif. -(UPU- Thank
God the visibility was excel
lent. We had been flying on in
struments from Fresno but we
broke out of the clouds at
5,000 feet when we began
CARL FISHER
is a man people like
and respect. His four
years in the Oregon
legislature prove that
he gets things done
with fairness and dis
patch. He will work
for new jobs and pay
rolls, an improvement
in the lumber indus
try, a firm stand on
the Cuban
problem, and
. i
Kuvemmeni. y'
VOTE
FOR
HIM
MKMflnVMMi ' ..'IS"'
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nil
making our descent to land
at Sacramento.
Suddenly I felt an unusual
vibration in the rudder con
trols. It was a very rapid
horizon1;' movement of the
tail.
While I was thinking little
thoughts, I was doing what
any pilot instinctively does
when something unusual hap
pens - he slows down ,
Our speed had been 250
knots (285' miles per hour) and
I was in the act of cutting
down 25 to 30 knots when the
airplane went wild.
There was a heavy shock
and a loud noise. The plane
began bouncing violently up
and down, from one side to
the other.
At that moment, I learned
later, the rudder had lorn
loose and flew off into space.
The right wing dropped in
a DO-degree bank. 1 swung the
wheel 'way over to Hie left to
raise the wing but it had little
effect. And the rudder pedals
were limp.
There was only one thing
left to do - open the throttles
on the right hand engines.
This literally pulled the wing
back to level flight.
Now our main problem was
to keep the aircraft right side
up. After we got the right
wing up. it started to go the
other way. The plane was wal
lowing from side to side -what
we call yawing.
Each time it rolled one way
I'd gradually open the throt
tles on that side. It didn't take
long to realize that only the
engines could hold us headed
I straight, although the ailerons
helped keep the wings level.
Muscle Control
The wheel took lots of
muscle to control and first
officer R. E. Robbers helped
out. But his main job was to
let the people on the ground
know about our predicament.
Flight engineer Victor Han
sen briefed the stewardesses,
Elizabeth Teal and Mary Jane
Rhoades, and they passed the
information on to the pas
sengers. We had another Unit
ed Captain, O. D. Glassburn,
riding in the cabin and he
look charge of preparing the
passengers for a possible
emergency evacuation.
The telephone men coop
erated wonderfully. There was
no panic.
Meanwhile, we were dis
covering that keeping the
plane level and headed In one
direction was something like
learning to ride a bicycle -the
more practice you have,
the easier it gets.
Repair Work Hear Completion
After a two-week bout with
the problems created by the
Columbus Day storm, Pacific
Northwest Bell is just about
"out of the woods" on mop-up
work, company officials re
port. Damage estimates to Paci
fic Northwest Bell facilities
exceed S2 million. About 115,
000 telephones were storm
silenced at some time during
the 10 days following the
storm. Company officials add
ed, however, the peak number
out at any one time was con
siderably less-60,000
Near perfect weather has
been a boon to restoration ef
forts although fall rains pose
a definite threat to continued
service in many areas. A large
number of phone cables have
sustained damage but arc
still operating. The water
proof covering protecting in
ternal wires of thousands of
feet of cable has been split
and cracked, subject to mois
ture penetration.
Still on Job
Thus, 12-hour-days will
continue for a great many
telephone people until perm
anent restoration can be
made. Many out-of-state work
ers from other Bell System
companies are still being held
on the job, although some installer-repairmen
have relum
ed to their jobs in California,
Washington, Idaho, Utah,
Colorado and Arizona. Con
struction crews and cable
splicers remain in heavy de
mand. Another convoy of tower-equipped
trucks arrived
from central and southern
California early last week.
Normal installation work
such as new service and
change of address orders are
still on a restricted basis.
Installation and repair forces
relieved from restoration
work arc completing as many
of these orders as possible.
Servicemen
WITH WING
Marine I'fe. Rodney L.
Knvrier. son nf Mr. and Mrs.
i Alvin C. Snyder. 343 South
Grape st., is serving with the
Third Marine Aircraft Wing
at the El Torn Marine Corps
Air station, Santa Ana, Calif.
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You'v probably heard the on about only tha very
young benefitting from the enrichment of wetor by tha
addition of fluorides. But think ahead. Kids grow up fait.
4v
Can you imagine tha first generation of Medford old
folks (or Senior Citizens, if you will) with dental cripples
a rarity? They'll be full-faced, smiling, able to handle tha
high-protein diet they need . . . and they'll be THRIVING
on it. This is a chance for All Medford voters to contribute
toward the dream of a mora robust, healthier, happier
population of All ages.
Kids only? No. EVERYBODY benefits from fluoridation.
Your committee for BETTER DENTAl HEAITH.
(M AH C
r h 'u-fd'in. Mr Jfjn E"g tn,
CO 5 sk'vpu B'vd
light and in the right direc
tion.
Two Drawbacks
But there were two draw
backs: we would be landing
in darkness, and the runway
was wet from the recent
storms, meaning we would
probably skid.
Capt. Glassburn and the
stewardesses handed out blan
kets and pillows for passen
gers to use as protective pad
ding. The Mather tower was
alerted-thcy were wonderful,
giving us all possible infor
mation about conditions on
the ground.
Then we began our ap
proach. 1 never worked so
hard in all my life, and my
arms are still sore from strug
gling with the wheel and the
throttles to keep the plane
reasonably level and lined up
with the runway.
Every time the nose swung,
a wing would drop down.
But we had to land on the
first try. ! didn't want to risk
turning the plane over on its
back a couple of feet off the
ground.
It would be simply a mat
ter of luck and timing if we
hit the ground with our nose
pointing straight ahead. With
no rudder, we had no direc
tional control.
Just as we touched the run
way, the nose swung slightly
out of line. The plane ran off
the side of the runway and
into the mud, ground-looped
back onto the runway and
stopped, heading in the op
posite direction. No one was
hurt and we didn't even blow
a tire.
IS had been 53 minutes since
we discovered the emergency.
The passengers slid down
emergency canvas chutes
through a rear exit. We were
all on the ground and some
body pointed to ihe tail and
said "take a look up there!"
What a shock: The entire
rudder was gone, along with
the upper two-thirds of t..e broken off squarely, leaving Everybody went inside for
vertical stabilizer. They had a five-by-fivc-foot stub.
coffee.
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NEVER NABBED CULPRIT 1
Woodstock, Conn.-Sfti-Thc
Woodstock llorsethief Detect- J
ing Society made an?
embarrassing announcement J
Wednesday. It reported it has
rounded up nary a culprit i
since it was founded in 1793.
II
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