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When Al White first felt the impact of Walker’s plane roll into the vertical stabilisers, his immediate reaction was to get his seat into the escape capsule. This was accomplished in a matter of seconds, as training for the escape had become a routine reaction. In closing the clam he had accidentally tucked his fist in the hollow of his armpit and his elbow was protruding in the path of the clamshell closure (items 8 & 10 in the diagram). It was tight quarters and he struggled to free his arm from the weight of the clam hood.

He saw that Major Cross was still leaning forward in his seat at the controls. The G forces were so high from the spin of the aircraft he was unable to move. Something was wrong with his seat. It had not moved back to his capsule. He had waited too long, and the G forces had built up beyond the operational ability of the seat retraction mechanism. [It was later learned that diaphragm in the seat retraction cylinder had ruptured under high loads created from the G forces of the aircraft spin; this could have been eight times its normal operating range; Cross had waited to long.]

What can I do for this guy was all Al could think of for a few moments. The G loads from the spin were building up fast. White knew he could not get to Major Cross to help him and if he could not get his elbow into the capsule he would lose his arm in the ejection of the seat. During these moments the Bomber had lost approximately 10,000 ft altitude. Forcing his closed hand out of the armpit, he struggled and finally freed his arm with little time left to hit the ejection switch.

The clamshell closed hard from the power of the thrust as it lifted from the aircraft. [NO signal came through the telemetry system to indicate Al's seat was the one that left, confusion lead to believe Cross-had made it out.]. Al's mind was in a flurry, his thoughts were on Cross and his own chances of being hit by the debris. He lost memory of the capsule procedure to deploy the air bag under the capsule. This cost him his hard bounce off the ground. The bottom of the capsule was equipped with an air bag (something like that in a car) and it needed to be energised by the occupant to be inflated to reduce the impact when the capsule hit the ground. He landed so hard that his butt had made a perfect impression in the metal seat of the capsule.

Al White’s ejection capsule landed a few thousand feet away from the XB-70. Major Cross didn’t make it out. Al White had to be removed from the capsule and flown to the Edwards Hospital where he stayed a few days to recover from bruises and a back injury.

area51specialprojects.com/xb70_crash.html

XB-70 Crash
tacairnet.com/2014/10/27/crash-of-the-valkyrie/

XB-70 Valkyrie's Last Flight
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d44sc7R6cGM

Tags: XB-70