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Oct
Yves Philippe once wrote a short story about a Starfighter crash named "Crash d'un F-104 a Xonvillers, Commune de Dommartin Les Remiremont, Le Lt. Richard Spencer." The accident he is referring to is the loss of CF-104 "12884", operated by Sollingen based 444 squadron and flown by S/L Richard William "Dick" Spencer, near Remiremont, France on February 22nd, 1965. He allowed us to publish his story (translated from French to English) on our website. We kept the story authentic. Thanks Yves!
F-104 crashes in Xonvillers (Commune of Dommartin-les-Remiremont). Lieutenant Richard W. Spencer ejects.
During 2015, as part of research regarding the crash of a German bomber aircraft in Le Phény (Commune of Gérardmer), Mr. Thomas REMY, President of the ARIHANE-88 association (Association for Research and Investigation into the History of Aviation in the Northeast), informed Yves Philippe and Francis Froideval (Its secretary and treasurer) that, according to Mr. Hubert Fresse, living in Vecoux, a fighter jet crashed in Xonvillers, Commune of Dommartin Les Remiremont, in the 1960s. The pilot apparently bailed out.
Although surprised, Yves and Francis concluded that where there's smoke, there's fire, and that further research would be needed to confirm the facts. With the pilot safe and the events dating back to a more recent past than they were used to working on, our two researchers decided to tackle this research during moments of delay that occurred amidst their intense involvement with other plane crash sites. Thus, in the summer of 2015, Yves began collecting information from the residents of Vecoux and Dommartin les Remiremont. One thing led to another, and he was directed to Mr. Georges Dany, a local historian. The latter spontaneously shared his memoirs with him. "From what I remember, it was in February 1965, when a Canadian fighter plane suddenly came to a halt in the forest near the Perry farm. The pilot who had been able to parachute out was rescued from the top of the Beuille in Rupt-sur-Moselle. I have documents on this; I'll look them up and send them to you. You should go see the Perry Farm in Xonvillers; the plane fell right above their farm," Mr. Dany told them.
During the following winter, a brief visit to Mrs. Perry's home provided them with the following testimony: "I was at home. I was pregnant with my daughter. I heard a loud noise and then nothing. It was my husband who came to tell me that it was a plane that had crashed near the farm. The incident happened during February 1965, since I gave birth in March. I even thought that this event would have caused me to give birth earlier, but that didn't happen." His son, Damien, explains: "I think this plane came from Luxeuil. The pilot ejected and fell at Rupt-sur-Moselle. I think he was only injured in one leg." His plane fell right above our house. It cut down some trees as it fell. A stump was propelled onto the roof of our chicken coop. I know Dad went to the Luxeuil base to get compensation. That area was later plowed over, but since it was littered with scrap metal, spruce trees were planted in its place. You can still see the hole where the plane fell. It's like a kind of basin that always stays damp. You go up the path; it's just at the end of the park on the left bend. You'll certainly find bits of aluminum along the way. You could also go see Thérèse Jacquot, who lives on Route de Xonvillers; the woods where the plane fell still belong to them. Mr. Perry described to them precisely the spot where the fighter plane crashed, after which a short visit was made to the site. A few fragments of aluminum were quickly discovered on the ground.
In the following weeks, Yves conducted research on the Internet. He thought he had discovered a satellite photo dating from 1968, on the Géoportail website.
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| Aerial view and indexing of the crash site. |
Subsequently, a short spring getaway took our research duo to the Fèches area, on the heights of Xonvillers. During this trip, they came into contact with Mrs. Desmougin, née Mathieu, who told them: "I was living at the Mitreuches farm at the time. I saw the plane before it crashed; it looked like a ball of fire in the air. The plane was coming from Rupt-sur-Moselle." The pilot of the plane having parachuted into Rupt-sur-Moselle, a search was also undertaken in this town. During this search, André Dupuy gave them the following information: "Indeed. The pilot crashed near the Renards farm in Arraye, very close to here. I think he was injured in one foot." He was taken to Roger Pierre's café, which was located at the start of the Route de Vecoux in Maxonchamp, where the Rupt-Linge store later stood. You might want to see Roger Pierre's daughter; she lives in Dommartin; she might be able to help you. Danielle Pierre was contacted in April. She confirmed the facts: "The pilot was brought there because, in addition to the Hotel-Restaurant, Café, Bar, and Grocery store that my parents ran there, it was also a first-aid station. My father had worked as a first-aid doctor. We were therefore equipped with a telephone, which was rare at the time, a stretcher, and various equipment for providing first aid. In addition, my father had a van, which allowed him to transport the injured. At the time, there were no ambulances like there are today. The pilot had a leg injury; I think he had to be taken to the hospital in Remiremont."
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| The business Mr. Roger PIERRE's e-commerce in the 1910's. |
In the cool of April, Yves and Francis arrived at the home of Mrs. Thérese FRESSE, Vve Gérard JACQUOT. "It was the day after my husband's 40th birthday, he was born on February 23, 1925. We were wallpapering a room. We heard a noise, as if a bomb had fallen. Looking out the window, we saw flames and thick smoke in the woods, 500 meters from our house, in Xonvillers. We immediately thought it was a plane. My husband went to investigate, and it turned out that the plane had fallen in a fir wood that belonged to him. Several trees had been cut down, and a hole had been made by the plane's fall. My husband subsequently took steps to obtain compensation. I can still show you some documents on this. We later learned that the pilot had fallen on Rupt."
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| The documents relating to the compensation claim. |
This trip was used to pay another visit to Mr. Georges Dany, who lived only a few hundred meters from Ms. Jacquot. The historian, who had been informed of this visit, presented our two researchers with a press clipping from the newspaper "L'Est Républicain" dated February 25, 1965. The article reported that a patrol of two aircraft had passed over the town of Remiremont the previous morning and that one of the two planes, in distress, had struck the mountain at Xatis Savette in the commune of Dommartin-les-Remiremont at 10:25 a.m. View of the press article, which we reproduce verbatim below. (click on them to expand the pictures)
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| View of the press article, which we reproduce verbatim below. |
Transcription of the press article:
A JET PLANE CRASHES IN THE FOREST FOUR KILOMETERS SOUTH OF THE TOWN
The pilot, who was able to parachute out, is injured.
A low-flying aerial ballet greatly intrigued the population of Remiremont and the surrounding area yesterday around 10:00 a.m. Two jets flying together flew low over Fort du Parmont, glided over the roof of the presbytery, and continued their journey up the Upper Moselle valley. One of the two planes appeared to be in difficulty. After a vertical U-turn and just above the rooftops of the village of Vecoux, it turned back. It couldn't have gone far. Less than two kilometers away, 100 meters from Route Nationale 66, the disabled plane crashed at the northeast marker of the Bois de Xatis Sayette, in the commune of Dommartin. It was 10:20 a.m. At the same time, its pilot, Captain Richard William Spencer, who had managed to guide the jet with engine failure as far away from any inhabited area as possible until the last second, landed abruptly above the hamlet of Lépange, in the commune of Rupt-sur-Moselle. His ejection seat had activated, and the officer parachuted down a few kilometers from the crash site. He was quickly rescued on the spot and then taken to Remiremont hospital. The flight plan for the aircraft, an F-104, called for the flight to be completed at an altitude of 14 miles (7,000 meters). It was only when the instrument panel lit up the warning light, warning of serious danger, and when the controls were no longer responding that the pilot activated his ejection seat. It was at the moment of ejection that the pilot sustained facial injuries.
DIFFICULT SEARCHES IN THE SNOW
Following several phone calls from witnesses to the accident, the search was organized and began very quickly. The gendarmerie brigades of Rupt-sur-Moselle and Remiremont, the firefighters, the "justice" services, and the city's emergency services converged on the scene of the accident. The thick snow covering the countryside and forests, and the lack of flames and smoke, made the initial searches quite difficult. But the police soon located the point of fall at Xonvillers.
SHAPELESS DEBRIS.
A huge crater several meters in diameter, a dozen fir trees shattered and cut like straws, hundreds of spare parts and debris from the aircraft marked the point where the plane fell and broke up over several hectares of woods and fields. The Gendarmerie investigation, led by Captain Petitjean and a Canadian military commission that arrived by helicopter at 1 p.m., was to take place at the scene of the crash, which was due to engine failure. Only shapeless debris remained of the disintegrated aircraft. The landing gear and a twisted machine gun were found embedded in the ground near the Croisette stream. On a wing fragment washed up in a snowfield, the roundel of the aircraft, a CF-104, was visible, carrying out a regular training flight. The violence of the impact had widely scattered all the debris, the largest of which measured less than a square meter. A piece of metal from the aircraft punctured the window of a farmhouse in Xonvillers, near the crash site. The fir grove where the aircraft crashed belongs to Mr. Jacquot, who lives in La Poirie, a commune of Dommartin. It was obviously seriously damaged. Many trees had been felled or broken when the plane crashed. Several dozen armed men belonging to the Canadian Air Force were positioned yesterday afternoon and strictly guarding the perimeter where the remains of the aircraft were located while the military commission of inquiry "investigated."
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| View of the photographs accompanying the press article. |
THE MAYOR OF REMIREMONT VISITS THE INJURED PILOT
The pilot found over Lépange was taken to the Remiremont hospital by a passing motorist. Captain Richard Spencer of Baden-Baden Squadron 444, originally from Canada, survived with a broken left leg and a minor head injury. We were able to speak briefly with him, who speaks French quite well. He told us that he had married a resident of Merlebach, that he had fourteen years of flying experience, and that he had been in the air force with Maurice Martin of Zainvillers. After receiving treatment from Doctor Malandra, the pilot received a visit from Mr. Antuszewiez, Mayor of Remiremont, who congratulated him for having been able to guide his plane into the woods, thus avoiding a real disaster. During the afternoon, a helicopter landed on the Champ de Mars and took care of the injured pilot and returned him to his base. We now learn that the aircraft involved in this crash was an F-104. Let's take a closer look at this aircraft to learn a little more about it. The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American supersonic jet fighter. More than 2,500 were built starting in 1954. The RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) owned 200 of them, about 100 of which crashed on European soil during the various missions assigned to it. This high number of crashes earned this aircraft the nicknames "Widow Maker" and "Flying Coffin." A third of these accidents were due to engine shutdowns in flight, which is dramatic for a single-engine aircraft.
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| View from a Canadian F-104. |
A few weeks later, Francis unearthed two other press articles on the same incident.
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Freedom of the East, February 25, 1965, A Canadian plane crashes between Remiremont and Vécoux. Its pilot, a captain, was able to parachute out.
Remiremont (from our editorial staff): Yesterday morning, around 10:15 a.m., the residents of Vecoux were alarmed by the thunder of the raging engines of a plane passing over the village. Those outside at the time who were able to follow the plane with their eyes saw it hit the mountain on the eastern face of the enormous Carroy massif that separates Vecoux from Remiremont. And in the sky, they soon saw the crown of a parachute, indicating that the aviator had managed to escape in time. The alarm was sounded to the firefighters at the Remiremont rescue center, and the siren called for help as another aircraft circled over the mountain range where he had seen his companion disappear. Searching for a plane that had crashed in the mountains is not easy, especially when the lost roads are impassable due to ice and snow. And the contradictory accounts of witnesses made exploring the area difficult. Some placed the fall point near the drylands, others near the Croisette, or even Roche Tacquaine on the plateau. Rescue teams conducted extensive searches in the enormous massif. However, the wreckage of the plane was discovered 500 meters as the crow flies from the Remiremont-Bussang National Road, substantially above the Xonvillers Bridge. On a property belonging to Mr. JACQUOT of Dommartin-Les-Remiremont. The plane had struck the mountain at about its base, crashing into a fir forest, slashing the tops. It was then nothing but scattered debris, some of which were still burning. As for the airman, he had touched down near La Beuille. A resident of La Beuille had seen the parachute caught in the trees on the hillside. He went to help the airman free himself, and along the way, he encountered him descending toward the valley. His face was covered in blood, which flowed from a deep wound on his forehead, while another wound on his left leg made walking very difficult. The airman was immediately taken to the hospital in Remiremont. He was a Canadian, Captain Richard Spencer, stationed at the Baden-Baden base in West Germany. At an altitude of 7,000 meters. His mission was to fly over the Vosges Mountains. It was while he was above them at an altitude of 7,000 meters that he realized one of his engines was on fire: the onboard warning signal had just gone off. Finding himself too far from his base to return, he received an order by radio from his leader to abandon the aircraft, which crashed to the ground a few seconds later. At 1:00 p.m., a helicopter from Germany with a Canadian medical officer on board landed at Remiremont. The injured man, who had been treated by Dr. Morange, the hospital's surgeon, was taken on board at 3:30 p.m. at the Champ de Mars to be taken back to his base. Since yesterday afternoon, a detachment of Canadian troops has been guarding the wreckage of the plane and preventing curious onlookers from approaching.
In his free time, Yves devotes some research to pilot Richard Spencer and his fighter squadron. As the Cold War escalated, Canada committed to its NATO partners to help strengthen Western Europe's air defenses. The headquarters of the 1st Royal Canadian Air Force Division was established in Paris in October 1952 and then relocated to Metz in 1953. It comprised twelve fighter squadrons divided into four wings on four Canadian bases. Two of these military airports were located in France: the first wing was based in Marville and the second in Grostenquin. The other two were based in Germany. The fourth Canadian Fighter Wing was based at that time in Baden-Soellingen. Captain Richard Spencer was attached to the 422nd Squadron (aka Tomahowk). Initially equipped with F-100 Sabres, the squadron converted to F-104s in July 1963 as part of Canada's contribution to NATO. The squadron remained at Baden-Soellingen until its disbandment in July 1970, after serving a total of 17 years at the base.
On the website WWW.ejection-history.com, he discovered a link providing the following information:
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The ASN Aviation Safety Network website highlights Fact Sheet No. 55001. It states:
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Another site provides the following information:
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Other information has also been collected online, but it is unclear whether this is the correct pilot. For example, the following information appears: "At this time, the CF-104 had been in operation for three years at 4 Wing. Each pilot's flight time and experience on this aircraft increased. Several pilots approached the coveted 1,000-hour milestone on the CF-104 Starfighter. By the end of September 1966, S/L Spencer and several other 4 Wing pilots had reached this milestone. Naturally, the appropriate ceremonies took place." Or again: "For the third consecutive year, the RCAF team won the Guynemer Trophy in a shooting competition held at the French Air Force Base in Cazaux, France. It was won on September 17, 1960, by F/L Richard Spencer, captain of the RCAF team, presented by General Maurice Challe, commander of NATO's Allied Forces in Central Europe."
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Crouching in the center is L/F Richard Spencer. Obviously, the lack of certainty that they actually concern the right Richard Spencer leads to reservations about these latest documents. Continuing his investigations, Yves launched a call for witnesses on several Canadian sites to obtain additional information about Dick Spencer. The above-mentioned information was confirmed by Mr. Laurence Sianchuk of the Canadian Startfighter Associations. Unfortunately, he also learned that the pilot died in 2010. Besides, the initial information obtained by Thomas Remy was confirmed and materialized.
There's rarely smoke without fire...
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