Burns

Although low altitude flight within the gorge was not in accordance with the mission profile the pilot entered the canyon and proceeded upslope towards rising terrain. 87% of the pilot's extensive flight experience was in helicopter aircraft and he had acquired an estimated total of only 13 hours in make/model at the time of the accident. The aircraft was slightly over its gross weight at the time of the accident and high density altitude conditions existed. During the pilot's attempt to reverse direction at the end of the gorge the aircraft stalled and a loss of control followed. A stall/spin maneuver resulted placing the aircraft in an uncontrolled descent into the terrain. All six occupants were killed.

On approach to Burns Airport, the twin engine aircraft crashed in unknown circumstances. All three occupants were killed.

En route from La Verne to La Grande, while in cruising altitude, a wing separated and detached. Out of control, the airplane entered a spin and crashed in flames. The pilot, sole on board, was killed.

At 11:05 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 1959, Tommy’s Tigator took off from Boeing Field for an experimental low-level flight test. Five employees of the Boeing Airplane Company were on board the B-52D: Lewis E. Moore, commander/pilot; Joseph Q. Keller, copilot; Gerald G. Green, navigator; Charles K. McDaniel and Neil Johnson, flight-test engineers. The aircraft had been making test runs over Eastern Washington, Oregon, and Idaho since April 10, 1959, and was loaded with special electronic equipment for measuring stresses on the airframe and flight surfaces. The bomber was scheduled to fly at lower than 500 feet above the ground on an elliptical course from The Dalles, Oregon, to Malheur Lake, Burns, and back to Walla Walla, Washington, at near maximum speed of 638 miles-per-hour. At 11:30 a.m., Tommy’s Tigator radioed that it was over The Dalles and preparing to descend for the low-level test flight. No further reports were heard from the pilot after it passed the checkpoint. Leslie Heinz, a lineman for the Harney County Rural Electric Cooperative, was an eyewitness to the accident. He was working with a crew on power lines in a remote area approximately 35 miles west of Burns and three miles from the crash site. At about 12:00 noon, he spotted the B-52 flying southeast approximately 300 feet above the desert floor when it suddenly crashed. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all five crew members were killed:
Crew:
Lewis E. Moore, pilot,
Joseph Quentin Keller, copilot,
Gerald G. Green, navigator,
Neil Johnson, flight engineer,
Charles Kenneth McDaniel, flight engineer.
Source: http://www.historylink.org/File/10063

Enroute from Selfridge AFB, Michigan, to Reno-Stead Airport, the crew encountered poor weather conditions and lost control of the airplane that crash near Burns. All seven crew members were killed.