Bradford Runyon Interview, 25 February 2005
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| BR | Yeah, oh yes it was with us, well—actually the ground controllers told us that we had it at a certain position and, like I said, we were headed out away from the base to this TACAN penetration point and then the navigator had it there, and it stayed with us for, well say ten miles anyway. At least, going that way—going out. Well then we had to make our turn and come back and start our penetration and it never left us, it was with us all the time— | |
| TT | I think I missed something here. On your way out it was with you for quite a while? | |
| BR | Yes, it was with us for several minutes going out because I was concerned about what to do, and then our radios were out and I couldn't talk to anybody on the ground. Like I said, we basically just made the decision to go ahead with our penetration and land without permission to leave our altitude. Well, so it had been with us for a while before we made that decision and we were concerned and we figured we might just as well head back to the base. So we turned back, and I don't know if it was a 180 degree turn or a 100 degree turn or what, but basically we reversed our course and went back to the base and made our penetration and instrument approach, and at one point the navigator called and said it's set down on the ground. I don't think he said it had left us, but he was pretty sure it had gone down and set on the ground. | |
| TT | Yeah, he thought it dropped through the radar— | |
| BR | Yeah, and I'm not sure at that point whether he said that we were 10 miles from the base or whether I looked at my DME on the TACAN—it shows us our distance, but either I was told or I noticed myself that we were 10 miles from the base, and I think that we were at 14,000 feet but that could be wrong. I read the transcript, I said that it was with us from 200, meaning flight level 200 to 14, and I was talking about the altitudes then so I'm sure I meant 14,000 feet. It could have been 14 miles but I'm pretty sure that the Nav team or I would have noted the mileage was 10 miles from the base. | |
| TT | Yeah. So it stayed with you 20-25 miles. | |
| BR | Yes or longer. | |
| TT | Do you recall the amount? | |
| BR | No. It might have paced us for four minutes going outbound before we even turned and started penetration but I don't know how far out that penetration fix was, but I thought it was 35 miles out from the base. It was with us from there until 10 miles from the base. | |
| TT | Yeah, 25 miles. | |
| BR | 25 miles besides the, probably 10 going outbound, or more, and then it takes the B-52 several seconds or minutes to make a turn, it doesn't just whip around. | |
| TT | Yeah, it must be a pretty wide turn... | |
| BR | Yeah, right. We just use a 30-degree bank angle so you cover a lot of territory when you are turning. | |
| TT | Yeah I mean does it take two minutes to turn that thing 180? | |
| BR | I would say it would— | |
| TT | So at some point it dropped down and then what happened? |
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