page_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1955–1959)
section_title: 1955
hierarchical_section_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1955–1959) / 1955
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Navy Vought F7U-3 Cutlass (BuNo 129595) of Fighter Squadron (VF-124) Stingrays suffers ramp strike on landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) during carrier qualifications off of the California coast on 14 July 1955. Disintegrating airframe is seen spinning off to the port side. The pilot LCDR Jay Alkire, USNR, executive officer of VF-124, was killed when the airframe sank, still strapped into the ejection seat. Also killed were two boatswain's mates and one photographers mate, in the port catwalk by burning fuel.
context_page_description: This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
context_section_description: 1955
  On its 205th flight, the first prototype Cessna XT-37-CE, 54–716, c/n 40001, first flown 12 October 1954, becomes uncontrollable during spin tests and crashes in Kansas, Cessna test pilot Robert S. "Bob" Hagan ejecting successfully.
  5 January
  Two Boeing B-47E Stratojets of the 44th Bomb Wing from Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana, collide over the Gulf of Mexico during refuelling Wednesday night, causing one to crash and the other to limp home to base with damage, sans its observer who bailed out over the Gulf. Air-sea rescue teams began a search of the Gulf in an area some 30 miles (48 km) SE of Cameron, Louisiana, on the Gulf coast. B-47E-5-DT, 52-029, is lost with all three crew. Observer who bailed out is never found. The pilot of the recovered bomber stated that the lost plane apparently smashed down on his aircraft from above, "leaving wheel tracks on the cabin before it spun off to crash in Gulf waters. Capt. Morris E. Shiver, 29, of Albany, Ga., said 'we never knew what hit us' as the two six-jet bombers crashed together Wednesday night about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Cameron, La. An armada of planes and ships searched Thursday for the four airmen missing after the crash. Three of them were aboard the B47 which plunged into the Gulf, while the fourth, 1st Lt. Matthew Gemery, of Lakewood, Ohio, an observer, could have returned on his limping plane had he waited another minute before ejecting himself. They identified Maj. Sterling T. Carroll, 33, of Port Arthur, Tex., as the commander of the plane that returned, and Shiver as the pilot. The other three missing airmen were Maj. Jean S. Pierson, of Danville, Ind., aircraft commander; Capt. David O. Crump, of Albermarle, N.C. [sic], copilot, and father of six children, and 1st Lt. Rodney P. Egelston of Levelland, Tex., observer-bombardier."
  6 January
  "BRAMAN, Okla. (AP) – A crippled B47 six-engine jet bomber barrel-rolled, crashed and exploded in a wheat field a mile east of here Thursday, killing all three crewmen aboard. The plane, from McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita, Kan., disintegrated into hundreds of pieces after the explosion in this farm area of North Central Oklahoma near the Kansas border. Maj. Lawrence Tacker of McConnell AFB identified the dead as: Capt. Wayne E. Andrew of Yellow Springs, Ohio, commander of the plane; 1st Lt. Joseph C. Cook, co-pilot, Sunland, Calif.; Capt. William C. Berry, observer, Dayton, Ohio. The wives and families of the men are living temporarily in Wichita. O. O. McMasters, who lives here, said he heard the plane coming from the north and in distress. McMasters said it suddenly barrel-rolled and crashed. A crater 10 to 12 feet deep (4 m) was left in the pasture. Bits of the crewmen's bodies and the plane were scattered for hundreds of yards. The plane landed on the Horne farm and the explosion was so great it rocked Bramen a mile away." B-47B-30-BW Stratojet, 51-2086, of the 3520th Flying Training Wing lost.
  6 January
  A ferry pilot in a flight of three North American F-51 Mustangs from Norton Air Force Base, California, to McClellan Air Force Base, California, bails out into the Sierra Pelona Mountains N of Los Angeles in the first snowstorm of the season after suffering engine failure. Capt. John S. Thompson, of the 1736th Ferrying Squadron at Long Beach Air Force Base "trudged through the season's first heavy snow to a cafe at Acton in the mountains between Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley and the Mojave Desert, and called authorities. He said he had landed not far from where his F51 Mustang, crippled by a faulty propeller, crashed in the snow." The airframe came down near the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, E of Soledad Canyon Road. F-51H-10-NA Mustang, 44-64638, wrecked.
  6 January
  The crash of a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star in the Shadow Mountains in the Mojave Desert, while en route from Perrin Air Force Base, Texas, to George Air Force Base, California, kills two crew just 18 miles short of their destination. "The plane crashed as the pilot lost radio contact with George AFB, Victorville, in a heavy snowstorm while a
caption: Ramp strike of a VF-124 F7U-3 on the USS Hancock on 14 July 1955 resulting in the deaths of the pilot, two boatswain's mates and a photographers mate. LSO Ted Reilly manages to sprint across fantail and gets clear. Photo by PH2 James Binkley.[74]
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