NASA 901
February 28th, 1966: A NASA Northrop T-38 Talon crashed at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, killing two Project Gemini astronauts, Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
See and Bassett flew in one Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer, tail number NASA 901, with See at the controls and Bassett in the rear seat. A second T-38, NASA 907, carried Gemini astronauts Stafford and Cernan in trail. Weather at Lambert Field in St. Louis was poor, with rain, snow, and fog, broken clouds at 800 feet and a cloud ceiling of 1,500 feet, requiring an instrument approach. When the two aircraft emerged below the clouds shortly before 9 am, both pilots realized that they had missed the outer marker and overshot the runway.
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See then elected to perform a visual circling approach, but visibility was irregular and deteriorating rapidly. Stafford began to follow See's plane but lost sight of it in the clouds, choosing to go missed and pulled his aircraft up, back into the clouds for another approach.
See completed the circling approach to the left at an altitude of 500, and announced his intention to land on the southwest runway. Dropping gear and flaps. On short final, See realized his improper positioning and attempted to select afterburner while pulling up and turning hard right. Seconds later, at 8:58 a.m. CST NASA T-38 #901 plane struck the roof of McDonnell Building 101 on the northeast side of the airport. losing its right wing and landing gear on initial impact, then cartwheeled and crashed in a parking lot beyond the building.
Stafford and Cernan were still circling in the clouds in the second T-38, with absolutely no idea what just occurred to their fellow astronauts. Air traffic controllers were confused by the two aircraft in flight attempting different abort actions after the initial missed approach. After some delay, Stafford and Cernan were asked to identify themselves to help controllers sort out which aircraft was still airborne, and were given permission to land, but they were not informed of the crash until on the ground.
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Both astronauts in #901 were killed instantly. See was thrown clear of the cockpit and was found in the parking lot still strapped to his ejection seat with his parachute partially deployed. Charles Bassett was decapitated on impact; his severed head was only found later in the day in the rafters of the damaged assembly building.
See completed the circling approach to the left at an altitude of 500, and announced his intention to land on the southwest runway. Dropping gear and flaps. On short final, See realized his improper positioning and attempted to select afterburner while pulling up and turning hard right. Seconds later, at 8:58 a.m. CST NASA T-38 #901 plane struck the roof of McDonnell Building 101 on the northeast side of the airport. losing its right wing and landing gear on initial impact, then cartwheeled and crashed in a parking lot beyond the building.
Stafford and Cernan were still circling in the clouds in the second T-38, with absolutely no idea what just occurred to their fellow astronauts. Air traffic controllers were confused by the two aircraft in flight attempting different abort actions after the initial missed approach. After some delay, Stafford and Cernan were asked to identify themselves to help controllers sort out which aircraft was still airborne, and were given permission to land, but they were not informed of the crash until on the ground.
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Both astronauts in #901 were killed instantly. See was thrown clear of the cockpit and was found in the parking lot still strapped to his ejection seat with his parachute partially deployed. Charles Bassett was decapitated on impact; his severed head was only found later in the day in the rafters of the damaged assembly building.
In a sad twist of irony, inside the building that their jet had struck was their spacecraft awaiting thier upcoming launch date. Their bodies lay less than 500 feet from the capsule that was meant to bring them to the heavens.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Gemini 9 backup crew of Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan were moved to the primary position, scheduled for early June. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, who had formerly been the backup for Gemini 10, then became the mission's backup crew and were thus assigned as prime crew for Gemini 12. Without the occurrence of this tragedy, it is unlikely that Buzz Aldrin would have been assigned to the Apollo 11 mission, and would not have become the second man to walk on the Moon.
On Friday, March 4, 1966, both Gemini astronauts, Elliot See and Charles Bassett. were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery as fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Bill Anders, and Walter Cunningham flew overhead in the missing man formation in See's honor, while Jim Lovell, Jim McDivitt, and civilian pilot Jere Cobb flew the missing man to honor Bassett.
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Editors Note: The unfortunate details included in the story above are a reminder of the collective debt we owe to those who gave everything so that we could lay our footprints in the heavens...
Per ardua ad astra
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