B-52 crash on Elephant Mountain
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During a training mission on January 24, 1963, a B-52C out of Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts experienced trouble and crashed into the side of Elephant Mountain near Greenville, Maine. Of the 9 men aboard, only 2 of them survived the crash. The wreckage of the crash is still on the side of the mountain to this day. The navigator, Capt. Gerald J. Adler struck the snow covered ground about 2,000 feet (600 m) from the wreckage at a force estimated at 16 times the force of gravity when his parachute did not deploy upon ejection. His skull was fractured and three ribs were broken. The impact bent his ejection seat enough that he could not get his survival kit out. He survived the night by wrapping himself in his parachute, but both feet were frostbitten. The other survivor, pilot Lt. Col. Dante E. Bulli broke an ankle when he landed in a tree 30 feet (9 m) above the ground. He survived the night, with temperatures reaching 28 degrees below zero, by tucking the sleeping bag from his survival kit into the snow.[1]
