B-52 still flew after rudder, tail fin fell

When Ralph Jenkins read that the tail fin and rudder broke off the American Airlines plane that crashed Monday in New York, it rekindled memories of a similar incident about 40 years ago during the Seattle man's days in the Air Force.

Jenkins, then a wing commander, recalled that a Boeing B-52 bomber lost its tail fin, also known as the vertical stabilizer, and its rudder in the early 1960s while flying at altitude over the Rocky Mountains.

A Boeing crew was doing low-level radar-avoidance tests when the plane encountered turbulence, possibly in the area of Pueblo, Colo., he said.

"It was going over a ridge and ran into trouble that was severe enough to take the vertical stabilizer and the rudder off," Jenkins said.

Jenkins, now 82 and retired after 25 years with Windermere Real Estate, said the Boeing crew decided after losing the tail fin and rudder to fly 1,000 miles to an Air Force base in Blytheville, Ark.

A remote airstrip there provided a safe place to make an emergency landing, he said.

Jenkins, who was stationed at the base, said he spent a lot of time talking with the crew after it landed.

Crew members said the key to keeping the plane in the air was flying level and gently, like they were "milking a mouse," Jenkins said.

Three military planes, including a B-52, lost tail fins during test flights decades ago, aircraft historian Scot Haskin told The Associated Press. And a Japan Air Lines flight crashed after a Boeing 747 lost its tail fin in 1985, killing 520 people.

Steve Miletich can be reached at 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com.