Originally Posted by Pugs
Originally Posted by navlav8r
Originally Posted by AJ300MAG
Amazing that he was able to start the engines let alone taxi to the runway and take off without being noticed. He wasn't the first maintenance man to steal a jet, might be the first who survived without getting shot down.


I was on active duty when it happened and remember the incident.

It's especially tricky considering that starting the A-4 requires an external electrical power cord from an electrical cart AND an APU for compressed air to rotate the compressor (aka a "huffer"), both of which need to be disconnected after the engine is started.

So he had to hook up the electrical power cord and the "huffer", start the engine, get out and disconnect the power cart and the "huffer" hose and then get back in the cockpit. If he used a ladder to get in initially, he had to also take it down and no matter how he got into the cockpit to start it the jet, he had to climb back in AROUND THE INTAKE OF THE TURNING ENGINE.


If it had 2 drop tanks you could step on the horizontal fin and then up to the wing then onto the edge of the refueling probe then into the cockpit. grin A bit acrobatic wearing g-suit, torso harness and SV-2 vest but we did it when at a non-A-4 base with no ladder.

Note - I only flew a "double bubble" jet once and it was for a hurrivac from Pensacola to Wright Pat. We flew single centerline drop in VT-86 for all the other flights.


That's true. At Meridian we always flew with two drops and had to climb up on the wing and up the refueling probe when we went on cross country flights to bases that didn't have ladders...but this guy would have had to climb back the probe, unhook the electrical cart and the huffer hose and then back into the cockpit via the same route after he had started the engine.

We always flew with two drops in the event you had an unsafe gear, if you could get the gear to come above the bottom of the droptanks you could land on the tanks and the jet was usually flying the next day.

NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.