Incident
A military aircraft departed Andersen Air Base in Guam for a mission to Vietnam during nighttime. While climbing through poor weather conditions, the aircraft became unstable. The pilot-in-command elected to stabilize the airplane by leveling off, but the crew subsequently decided to abandon the aircraft and bailed out. The aircraft, now out of control, crashed into the sea and was destroyed.
Search and Recovery
Several hours after the accident, five crew members were found and evacuated. The sixth occupant, Lieutenant Colonel James Lloyd Vaughan, was missing. His body was discovered 42 days later on a beach on Yap Island.
Probable Cause
According to the official investigation findings, the probable cause was an improperly secured chin radome that flew off during initial climb. When the chin radome detached, it struck the Pitot tubes, causing erroneous data to be transmitted to the instruments. The airplane was leveled off and allowed to decelerate into a stabilized low-speed stall before being abandoned.