Thunderbird Pilot Dies in 1981 Hill Air Force Base Crash

Thunderbird Pilot Dies in 1981 Hill Air Force Base Crash

May 10, 1981, Standard-Examiner

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — An heroic Thunderbird pilot, crashing his powerless T-38 Talon rather than endanger spectators, was killed Saturday in a spectacular accident that marred Hill Air Force Base’s 40th birthday party.

Capt. David L. (Nick) Hauck, 34, died instantly when his stricken craft plowed into a pasture 250 yards south of the base runway as scores of horrified persons watched.

He was the first member of the famed Air Force aerial demonstration team to lose his life since Capt. Charles Carter crashed near Cheyenne, Wyo., in July of 1977.

Capt. Hauck, a 10-year Air Force pilot who just joined the Thunderbirds this year, was flying at comparatively slow speed, preparatory to a landing that was part of the show that has thrilled millions all over the nation since 1953.

Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Young was one of those who reported the fighter had lost power.

He said he believed Capt. Hauck could have ejected but remained with the plane to keep it from striking hundreds of spectators along Hill Field Road, just north of the crash site.

Most of the estimated 75,000 men, women and children who thronged the base for the day-long anniversary observance, were near Hangar No. 1, midway along the three-mile runway, enjoying the exciting Thunderbird show in brilliant sunshine.

The few clouds in the sparkling blue sky provided an ideal backdrop for the colored smoke trails left by the skillful pilots as they went through their intricate maneuvers.

The demonstration by the six Thunderbird team members, the 2,411th since their organization was formed in 1953, went perfectly for 20 minutes.

Four of the planes were heading toward the mountains to regroup for their next aerial trick.

Capt. Hauck, flying the “opposing solo” position, and Capt. Sonny Childers, “lead solo” and a classmate of Capt. Hauck’s at the Air Force Academy, had just finished a maneuver that had them come from opposite ends of the runway.

Their “closing speed” was more than 1,000 miles an hour but they twisted their planes so they cleared in passing by what seemed inches.

It was 3:20 p.m. when Capt. Willie Mays, Thunderbirds’ narrator, said Capts. Hauck and Childers would do something “unbelievable.”

Capt. Childers flashed over the south end of the runway then turned abruptly, intending to catch up with his teammate who was approaching at slow speed as though to land.

Capt. Mays was doing commentary with his back to the runway, so skillful were the pilots and so practiced was the team that each member knew precisely what the others were to do and when.

As Capt. Childers turned in Talon No. 5, Capt. Mays paused, waiting for Capt. Hauck to cross Hill Field Road. Capt. Hauck, in plane No. 6, never made it.

Witnesses along the road said his plane apparently lost power in its twin General Electric J85-5 turbojet, afterburner-equipped engines.

Fellow pilots said Capt. Hauck could have “punched out” — actuated the system that blasts his seat through the plastic canopy, allowing him to land safely in his parachute. Instead, he remained at the controls of the stricken craft.

He nursed it over a farmhouse about half a mile south of the highway and over one slight rise.

The five-ton plane plopped into the pasture, tail first. The landing gear, already lowered, was ripped off.

The sleek craft slid sideways, slamming into a farm wagon loaded with fertilizer, then cartwheeled wing over wing. As it careened, it struck two horses — killing one and injuring another so severely that it was destroyed. An irrigation pipe or tank was hit and water spewed over the scene.

When it finally came to rest, an angry puff of black smoke, followed by dark red flames, erupted. The smoke, although not the fireball, could be seen from Hangar No. 1.

The crowd grew still, hoping against hope there had not been a crash.

Narrator Mays stood by his microphone, stricken, as first one fire engine, then a big crash truck and next an ambulance, sirened out of the parking area. A helicopter soon followed.

“There’s been a malfunction,” Capt. Mays finally told the crowd. Then, still with careful military precision, he marched off, tears in his eyes. Other ground crew members gathered in knots, heads low.

Maj. Gen. James Murphy, commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center and himself a veteran fighter pilot, sped to the scene. So did Col. Joseph Battaglia and other top-ranking officers.

As law enforcement officers and military personnel cordoned off the crash scene, spectators quietly drifted away, driving off in their cars and even being patient in the inevitable traffic jam.

Capt. Hauck had ejected at the last second, according to some witnesses, but was dead upon arrival at Hill AFB Hospital, less than a mile away.

It was more than three hours before an official statement was issued, confirming the pilot’s death and reporting an official board of inquiry would be named to ascertain the cause of the accident.

The Ogden Area Chamber of Commerce had planned a reception at the base officers’ club, honoring the Thunderbirds, after the aerial show. It was canceled. So was the demonstration team’s next show, scheduled for Sunday at Reese AFB, Lubbock, Tex.

The surviving pilots and their support team sadly flew back to Las Vegas, Nev., and their home station at Nellis AFB.

Jimmy Ford, who makes a hobby of following the Thunderbirds for their shows, was openly crying. So was his wife.

“They were like our kids,” he told the Standard-Examiner. “It was too bad.”

Capt. Childers had landed his aircraft soon after the fatal accident. He was followed by the other four demonstration pilots — Lt. Col. D. L. Smith, Capt. Jim Jiggens, Capt. Pete Peterson and Capt. Dale Cooke.

They never performed their most spectacular maneuver that has closed most of the other 2,410 shows — the “high show bomb-burst,” in which they climb close together, then peel off in different directions.

A native of Mingo Junction, Ohio, Capt. Hauck was married to the former Linda Holinsky of his home town. They have two daughters — Heather and Brandy.

He attended the Air Force Academy on a presidential appointment, graduating in 1971. After earning his wings in Georgia, he flew for the Tactical Air Command in Thailand and Korea and was on domestic assignments at Eglin AFB, Fla., and Luke AFB, Ariz.

Before joining the Thunderbirds — one of only 124 pilots who have qualified in 29 years — he called it the “opportunity of a lifetime.”

Capt. Hauck was the 13th Thunderbird flying team pilot to lose his life since the 1953 founding.

Stories from the Standard-Examiner the day after the crash say the pilot, Capt. David L. (Nick) Hauck, probably had time to eject from the plane before it crashed, but he instead stayed in the plane to keep it away from spectators.