RF-4 153098 crash east of Parker, Arizona, on October 22 1975
Copyright © Chris McDoniel
F-4 Bureau Number 153098, crash on October 22, 1975. Two occupants were onboard the Phantom. Robert M. Bach was killed in the crash. Captain Anderson successfully bailed out.
The two crash photos were taken in the early 1990’s. Present day update, apparently the horizontal stabilizers were removed and remaining debris repainted to match the desert.
Below is video I shot at the crash site in 1992.
Tail section circa 1992. At the time of the crash, the RF-4 had a bicentennial paint theme. Just to note, a few bicentennial RF-4s from VMFP-3 were featured in Hasegawa and Fujimi 1/72 model kits. If you do an Internet search, you still might come across some kits for sale and see the various colorful bicentennial paint schemes.
Another view of the tail section. If you find a current photo of the tail section online, you’ll see the tail was repainted in camouflage (possibly) in an attempt to have it blend in with the desert.
Photograph of the crash aircraft.
Video I shot with a camcorder many decades ago. Never imagined one day I’d post the grainy, shaky video on something called the internet.