Guys,
I just got this from Stan Richardson, I'm heartbroke. Pass it along.
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: <lonestar@To: <rampchief@<RARATOW1@
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 12:41 PM
Subject: Fw: Gardner's P-38
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 7:48
> Subject: Fw: Gardner's P-38
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 7:10 AM
> Subject: Gardner's P-38
>
>
> Lefty Gardner's White Lightnin' Down in Mississippi
> On Monday afternoon, at the Greenwood-LeFlore (MS) airport, the sound of
an
> Allison V-12 overhead must have gotten some to look into the sky. The
> problem was that the airplane they were watching was 25Yankee, a Lockheed
> P-38L, which usually has two such engines.
> Ladd Gardner, son of "Lefty" Gardner, was making an emergency landing just
> west of the airport. He had reported an engine fire in the port nacelle,
and
> then smoke started filling the cockpit, making it impossible for him to
see,
> as he headed for the welcoming asphalt at GWO.
> He had to miss the airport, though; and he landed in a cotton field just
> west of it. The P-38L-5LD, famous as unlimited racer White Lightnin', a
1944
> manufacture that Gardner has had since the early '60s, belly-flopped in,
> sustaining serious but repairable damage, and protecting Ladd from harm.
> In an exclusive ANN interview, Charles Allen, the airport manager at
> Greenwood, said Ladd Gardner was quickly running out of time. He brought
the
> airplane in gear-up, Allen told us, and "the airplane is pretty badly
> damaged. All of the belly under the cockpit is messed up; and on the left
> side, where the fire was, it looks like it burned into the wing. Both
props
> are gone, too." [Note: that left-side engine was brand-new at Reno, 1996.
> Brand-new, as in, "WWII manufacture, new in crate." --ed.]
>
> A call to Al Stone, handling the investigation out of the NTSB office in
> Atlanta. "They took a flatbed down there, and were able to drop the gear.
> It's on its gear now. The pilot said they will store it in the Greenwood
> area for the time being. The latest information is that it's not too badly
> damaged."
> Cecil Womble, in the tower at Greenwood, told us, the day after the P-38
> arrived, "They pulled the gear down, and it's been backed into a hangar.
It
> took them a while, but it's on its feet. There's a hole, about twice the
> size of a [dinner] plate, through the left wing, and it was smoldering;
but
> the firemen put a little foam on it -- it's out now. It's just full of
dirt,
> and cotton balls, and more dirt, and leaves..." That dirt may have been
good
> luck for the plane, or even for Ladd. Charles Allen told us, "I think the
> dirt from the field may have helped put the fire out."
>
> A Bob Darden article on the website of the Greenwood paper, The
> Commonwealth, said Ladd was flying 'Lefty' "...Gardner's vintage World War
> II Lockheed P-38 "Lightning" fighter plane back home Monday morning from
an
> air show in Tullahoma, Tenn., when the left engine caught fire. As the
cabin
> filled with smoke, Gardner said he tried to head toward Greenwood-Leflore
> Airport in an effort to make an emergency landing. However, within minutes
> of the fire breaking out, Gardner said he was forced to crash land..."
> Darden relayed some bad news: "...the plane, valued at around $2 million,
> sustained major damage and could take years to restore, Gardner said."
> A Mississippi State Trooper who helped get the Lightning back to the
airport
> told us, "That thing's 52 feet long. [Note: it's 52 feet wide when it's
> flying, but it was placed sideways on the flatbed --ed.] We blocked
traffic
> for a little while. We probably had a lot of folks cussin' us." He was at
> the right place, at the right time. " I was on the way to the heights, and
> Kenny (Kenny Carver, the man whose field it landed in) flagged me down."
>
> A man outstanding in his field...
> Mr. Carver, in an exclusive ANN interview, told us his men watched the
> Lightning coming in to do its landing. "He didn't have a choice," Carver
> said. "He had an engine off, and it was on fire. My men saw him come in.
He
> just come down - barely missed one of my tractors. Then there wasn't
> anything but a big ball of dust." Carver, who was working some distance
from
> the landing site, said, "They called me on the radio, and we brought a
water
> wagon over and put the fire out. He [Gardner] didn't have a scratch on
him."
> Carver, like most of us, thought the younger Gardner had done a good job
of
> historic aircraft preservation "He did a good job of putting it down and
> letting it slide," he said.
> Carver spoke with Ladd briefly after the fire was put out. He related what
> the pilot told him: "One engine was running when it hit. He said the smoke
> got so strong in the cabin he couldn't stand it."
> Mr. Carver has seen a lot of machinery, and his insights are worth noting.
> He told us, "It looked like there was a little explosion by the engine.
> There was dirt all over it, but that one engine was still burning when I
got
> there."
> He didn't want the airplane to burn up. "That's when I went to get the
water
> trailer." Carver at first didn't recognize the airplane which had landed
in
> his cotton. "I didn't know what kind of an airplane it was; I just wanted
to
> get that fire out. Then I found out how valuable that airplane was," he
> said.
> Carver's volunteer work didn't end there. "After I got the fire out," he
> said, "I went to pick up his dad and the crew chief, and somebody else, at
> the airport. We're about 2 miles from the airport, as the eagle flies. He
> [Lefty] was really concerned about his boy. Then he was concerned about
the
> plane."
> The Carver farm is somewhat the worse for wear. "Counting all the
trampling
> around, he probably got about 5 acres," of his cotton, Mr. Carver said. As
> far as the actual damage the airplane did? "He slid probably 200 yards."
> Carver is becoming more familiar with aircraft. This isn't the first time
> one has landed on his land. It is the first Lightning, though. "I've have
a
> balloon come down," he said;" but never a plane."
> Our unofficial count says there are now just four P-38s still flying...
> [Thanks to The Greenwood Commonwealth for the seed information, and for
> Bobby Thompson's photo --ed.]
> **** 6/26/01 Preliminary Accident/Incident Data Record 7 ****
> A. Type: A Mid Air: N Missing: N Entry date: 6/26/01 From: SOUTHERN REGION
> OPERATIONS CENTER
> B. Reg. No.: 25Y M/M: P38 Desc: P-38, F-5 Lightning (L-222/322 Activity:
> Business Phase: Approach GA-A/C: General Aviation Descr: AIRCRAFT FLYING
> TOWARD GREENWOOD AIRPORT, LEFT ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH, COCKPIT FILLED
> WITH SMOKE AND PILOT COULD NOT SEE CONTROL PANEL, OVERFLEW AIRPORT AND
> LANDED IN A FIELD WEST OF AIRPORT, GREENWOOD, MS WX: METAR KGWO 251453Z
> 06004KT 7SM FEW065 24/19 A3016 RMK A02 Damage: Substantial
> C2. Injury Data:
> # Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
> # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
> # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
> D. Location. City: GREENWOOD State: MS Country: US
> E. Event Date: 6/25/01 Time: 1428
> F. Invest Coverage. IIC: AYCOCK Reg/DO: SO07 DO City: JACKSON DO State: MS
> Others: G. Flt Handling. Dep Pt: TULLAHOMA, TN Dep Date: 6/25/01 Time:
1330
> Dest: GREENWOOD, MS Last Radio Cont: ACFT 10W GWO ARPT INBOUND, ENGINE ON
> FIRE VIA GWO NFCT Flt Plan: NONE Last Clearance: SME PROVIDED VFR FLT FLWG
> FR 26I164015 TO VCNTY GWO TIL 1419 WX Briefing: Y Other: AAI IIC:
> FMI: <
http://www.warbird.com/lefty.html <http://www.warbird.com/lefty.html>
> >
>
>
