1963 Elephant Mountain B - 52 crash On 24 January 1963 a United States Air Force Boeing B - 52C Stratofortress with nine crew members on board lost its vertical stabilizer due to buffeting stresses during turbulence at low altitude and crashed on Elephant Mountain in Piscataquis County , Maine , six miles ( 9 . 7 km ) from Greenville . The pilot and the navigator survived the accident . Training mission . The crew ' s training mission was called a " Terrain Avoidance Flight " to practice techniques to penetrate " Advanced Capability Radar " ( ACR ) undetected by Soviet air defense during the Cold War . ACR training flights had already been made over the West Coast of the United States on " Poker Deck " routes . This was to be the first low level navigation flight , utilizing terrain following radar , in the Eastern United States . The crew , consisting of two 99th Bombardment Wing Standardization Division crews based at Westover Air Force Base , Massachusetts , and two instructors from the 39th Bombardment Squadron , 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing at Walker Air Force Base , New Mexico , was briefed for six hours the day before the accident . They had the choice of flying over either the Carolinas or Maine . The B - 52C departed Westover AFB at 12 : 11 p . m . on Thursday , 24 January 1963 , and was scheduled to return to Westover at 5 : 30 p . m . The crew spent the first 95 minutes of the flight calibrating their equipment . Upon receiving updated weather information for both available routes they chose the northern one . They were supposed to begin their low level simulated penetration of enemy airspace just south of Princeton , Maine , near West Grand Lake . From there , they would head north to Millinocket and fly over the mountains in the Jo - Mary / Greenville area . They planned to turn northeast near Seboomook Lake and southeast near Caucomgomoc Lake to proceed through the mountains of northern Baxter State Park . After crossing Traveler Mountain , the aircraft was supposed to climb back to altitude over the Houlton VOR Station . Accident . One hour later , around 2 : 30 p . m . the Stratofortress crossed the Princeton VOR , descended to 500 feet ( 152 meters ) and started its simulation of penetrating enemy airspace at low altitude with an airspeed of 280 knots . The outside temperature was below zero ( −26 °C ) with winds gusting to 40 knots ( 46 mi / h ; 74 km / h ) and 5 feet ( 1 , 5 meter ) of snow on the ground . Approximately 22 minutes later , just after passing Brownville Junction in the center of Maine , the aircraft encountered turbulence . The pilot and crew commander , Westover ' s Most Senior Standardization Instructor Pilot , started to climb above it when the vertical stabilizer came off the plane with a " loud noise sounding like an explosion " . Having suffered severe damage , the B - 52C went into a 40 - degree right turn , with nose pointed downward . The pilot gave the order to abandon the aircraft when he could not level it . Only the upper flight deck crew members of the B - 52C have ejection seats that eject them upwards . The seats of the pilot , copilot , and electronic warfare officer ( a navigator also trained in electronic warfare ) function at any altitude , as long as the airspeed is at least 90 knots , which is the minimum required to inflate their blast propelled parachutes . The lower - deck crew members eject on a downward track . Hence , the navigator and radar navigator cannot safely eject at altitudes less than 200 feet ( 61 meters ) . Spare crew members do not have an ejection seat at all . They must use parachutes and jump out of the navigators ' hatch after the navigators have ejected or drop out of the aircraft ' s door . The tail gunner has his own unique escape option : he can sever the tail gun and jump aft out the resulting hole in the rear . The navigator , who was operating as electronic warfare officer , ejected first . He was followed by the pilot and the copilot ; there was neither enough altitude nor time for the six lower - deck crew members to escape before the aircraft crashed into the west side of Elephant Mountain at 2 : 52 p . m . The copilot suffered fatal injuries , striking a tree a mile ( 1 . 6 km ) away from the main crash site . The pilot landed in a tree 30 feet ( 9 meters ) above the ground . He survived the night , with temperatures reaching almost −30 °F ( −35 °C ) , in his survival kit sleeping bag atop his life raft . The navigator ' s parachute did not deploy upon ejection . He impacted the snow - covered ground before separating from his ejection seat about 2 , 000 feet ( 610 meters ) from the wreckage with an impact estimated at 16 times the force of gravity . He suffered a fractured skull and three broken ribs . The force bent his ejection seat and he could not get his survival kit out . He survived the night by wrapping himself in his parachute . A grader operator on a remote woods road witnessed the final turn of the Stratofortress and a black smoke cloud after impact . Eighty rescuers from the Maine State Police , the Maine Inland Fish and Game Department , the Civil Air Patrol as well as Air Force Units from Dow Air Force Base in Bangor , Maine , along with others from New Hampshire and Massachusetts and other volunteers went to work . Search aircraft were on the scene , but they searched too far south and east to locate the wreckage before nightfall . After the crash site was located the next day , Scott Paper Company dispatched plows from Greenville to clear 10 miles ( 16 km ) of road of snow drifts up to deep . The rescuers had to use snowshoes , dog sleds and snowmobiles to cover the remaining mile to the crash site . At 11 a . m . the two survivors were airlifted to a hospital by a helicopter . Accident investigation . The crash was caused by turbulence - induced structural failure . Due to buffeting stresses the stabilizer shaft broke and the B - 52 ' s vertical stabilizer came off the plane . It was found 1 . 5 miles ( 2 . 4 km ) from where the plane struck the mountain side . With the loss of the vertical stabilizer , the aircraft had lost its directional stability and rolled uncontrollably . Originally , the B - 52 was designed to penetrate Soviet airspace at high altitude around 35 , 000 feet ( 10 . 7 km ) and high speed around 450 kts to drop nuclear weapons . When the US intelligence realized that the Soviets had implemented a sophisticated , layered and interconnected air defense system with radar controlled surface - to - air missiles ( SAMs ) , the US Air Force decided the B - 52 would have to penetrate the Soviet airspace at low altitude around 500 feet ( 152 meters ) and high speed to stay underneath the radar . However , low altitude , high speed flight operations put enormous stress on aircraft structure , especially when flying near mountains , up and down ridges and through valleys due to lee waves and the rotor . The B - 52 was not designed for this kind of operation . 56 - 0591 , a B - 52D , took off from Larson AFB , Washington , on 23 June 1959 and experienced a horizontal stabilizer turbulence - induced failure at low level and crashed . The modification process of the B - 52 series began in 1961 . B - 52C 53 - 0406 , which crashed on Elephant Mountain , was the second high tailed B - 52 to suffer such a fatal structural failure . After extensive testing , another two fatal crashes and one year later , Boeing determined that turbulence would over - stress the B - 52 ' s rudder connection bolts , causing first a rudder and subsequently a tail failure . The bolts were strengthened throughout the fleet which fixed the problem . Aftermath . Of the two survivors the pilot returned to active duty after spending three months in the hospital and the navigator , whose feet were frost bitten contracted double pneumonia , became unconscious for five days and his leg had to be amputated from the frostbite and gangrene that had set in . Most of the remains of " 53 – 0406 " are still at the crash site which is owned by Plum Creek Timber Co . They improved the foot trail so visitors can view the wreckage . While the site has signs posted asking viewers to show due respect while there , it has been vandalized with names carved in the wreckage or marked with permanent marker . In the late 1970s a retired military pilot and president of the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club , initiated the annual memorial snowmobile ride in honor to those aboard the B - 52 . The annual crash site ceremony is attended by representatives from the Maine Air National Guard , the American Legion , the Civil Air Patrol , Maine Warden Service and members of the snowmobile club . There is a color guard , the laying of a wreath , the reading of the names of those who died , a prayer by a military chaplain and the playing of taps . One engine and the navigator ' s ejection seat can be viewed at the Clubhouse . 1993 a special commemorative service was sponsored by the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club . The navigator attended the event and was honored at several ceremonies . He went to the crash site for the first time since being evacuated out thirty years earlier . In the fall of 2011 a Maine Forest Service employee found an ejection seat from the aircraft near an overgrown logging road while hunting . In May 2012 he returned to the site to take photos and record identification numbers to confirm it came from the infamous B - 52 . A recovery team retrieved the mostly intact ejection seat . Researchers claim that it is most likely the pilot ' s seat and remarkably similar to the seat at the snowmobile clubhouse in Greenville . It is the third seat recovered from the crash and preserved for public viewing . The other is in a Bangor museum . In 2013 , 50 years after the crash , the Snowmobile Club held the annual remembrance at the crash site and the retired pilot gave a rare interview . Navigator Gerald Adler came face - to - face with his rescuer for the first time in 50 years in a Memorial Day event on 25 May 2013 .