A DATE WITH THE DRAGON LADY - U-2 PILOT AVOIDS CRASH, EARNS TROPHY

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Luke Johnson
  • 9th Reconnaissance Wing Public Affairs
Beale AFB, Calif. (ACCNS) --  Late one evening last winter, a U-2 Dragon Lady departed Beale Air Force Base, Calif., on a routine, high-flight training mission. But as the mission progressed, things started to go terribly wrong.

"I began a decent into Beale after about four-and-half hours," said Lt. Col. Joseph Santucci, commander of the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron. "When I clicked off the autopilot, the pitch trim ran full."

That sent the reconnaissance aircraft full nose down into a treacherous dive.

Santucci immediately began pulling on the yoke to keep the nose up and the airplane flying.

"After about maybe one minute, I realize this is not a normal emergency," he said.

Even worse, the colonel didn't believe he had the strength to control the jet for the time it would take to recover.

"I actually prepared for ejection once," he said.

Santucci could not hold the jet with just one arm, making it more difficult for him to troubleshoot the various systems in the aircraft. He had to use all of the strength in his arms and back to pull the yoke and keep the aircraft stable.

He said that he was so exhausted that "I really had trouble thinking after about 10 minutes of working through it."

During the entire ordeal, Santucci communicated with the supervisor of flying, as well as his mobile car driver, a U-2 pilot who drives a chase car to help guide in the aircraft during landings and to provide an extra set of eyes and ears on the ground during routine U-2 flight operations.

"They were able to think for me, so I could just fly the jet," the pilot said.

In the control tower, Capt. Eugene Georgescu, also with the 99th RS, was serving his first shift as supervisor of flying but recognized the severity of the situation. He notified Santucci's mobile driver and ordered all other aircraft to land to clear the airspace over the airfield.

"We began reading checklists to him," Georgescu said. "Most of his radio contacts were of him breathing heavily due to being overwhelmed in the handling of the aircraft."

With the help of his mobile driver and the supervisor of flying, Santucci slowed the U-2 to stall speed so he could hold the jet up to land it.

But the pilot faced other hazards.

The weather was bad, and "there was no horizon and no moon illumination," the colonel said. "The disorientation was horrible for me; probably the worst I have ever experienced."

Santucci described it as tumbling around uncontrollably in a black room.

"The disorientation of trying to hold the yoke while troubleshooting in the cockpit (was awful)," he said. "I would move my head to find different systems in the cockpit; and by the time I came back to the artificial horizon, the jet would be in 20 degrees nose low and a lot of left to right bank. Then I would have to recover again."

Georgescu communicated his airspeed and altitude to the mobile driver and calculated his approach speed for him. The mobile driver read off checklists and helped the colonel maintain situational awareness.

"Even in the best conditions, it is difficult to land the U-2," Georgescu said. "And we knew in his situation, he was completely overwhelmed with the aircraft. The advantage of having a mobile driver and (supervisor of flying) is that we can monitor the situation and read checklists while the pilot is focused on flying the aircraft."

Once the team put a plan into motion, Santucci felt a glimmer of hope that he would not have to ditch the aircraft.

"Once I got slow enough, I realized that I could probably just hold it for another half hour or so to get down," he said. "That made all the difference in the world. The problem then was just the disorientation."

At approximately 8,000 feet, though, Santucci emerged from the bad weather and was able to view the airfield.

As soon as he saw the runway lights, his disorientation ended.

"Once I caught a glimpse of the runway and the airfield, the gyros caged -- just like that," he said. "It was really amazing to me how the human body is built to be attached to the ground."

Once he landed, Capt. Josh Massai unstrapped him from the cockpit, and the colonel made his way down the ladder.

"I think I underestimated how tired I was," Santucci said. "Before I knew it, I was laying on the ground face up looking at all these people bent over me trying to figure out what happened."

After getting out of his pressure suit, which U-2 pilots wear for their high-altitude missions, he was cleared to go home. The next day he went to the clinic for back pain, swelling in his right arm and overexertion.

"A little Motrin, and four days later I was fine," he said.

Santucci later learned that a small fire had broken out in one of the trim motors, and there was also some chafed wiring that grounded the circuit that ran the trim forward, full nose down.

"All of this had been happening while the autopilot was engaged, and the autopilot clutches were holding the jet up because they are fairly strong," he said. "Once I clicked it off, there was no autopilot to hold up the aircraft anymore."

For his efforts in landing the U-2 safely, Santucci was awarded the Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy, which recognizes outstanding feats of airmanship by individual aircrew members.

But the U-2 pilot credits his mobile driver and the supervisor of flying for helping him to safely recover his Dragon Lady.

"Without the help of a couple of captains who were really good on the system, I don't know what would have happened," he said.