For your information:

This aircraft had a 125 Continental and Tip tanks which were not approved
by the FAA for fuel. however the tip tanks actually stabilized the swift
somewhat. On 10-29-1965 I flew up to Salina, KS from Barksdale AFB to pick
up the swift. I had left the Swift there for some repair and modification
after my room mate had ground looped it and damaged the tip tank and prop.
There also was a required carburetor modification.

The next day 10-30-65 around 10:30 AM the mechanic/IA and I took off to
check it out. On the second approach as I reduced power on base the engine
quit. I did a quick attempt to restart. The IA then tried and I told him
to try the wobble pump between his legs. When he leaned over to try the
pump he dropped the left wing 90 degrees. Not wanting to go in upside down
I reach up and leveled the wings. At this point the IA raised up and
pulled back on the controls. Well, you know what happened next!. He
stalled it and we fell around 350 ft. I turned off everything and my first
thought was that I was going to bust my legs again. (I had a bad injury as
a child in my left leg.) For some reason I thought I was going to break my
left arm, I guess because I was sitting in the left seat. Then I had time
to think I was going to smash my face. The plane went down completely flat
with the gear down, There was little, if any forward motion when it hit.

I was knocked out momentarily. I was very anxious to get out as I thought
it might blow up. He asked if I was hurt and I told him my back was
hurting real bad. At the same time I was trying to get out of the
cockpit-he started screaming "Don't Panic, Don't Panic etc. I told him
"Panic Hell", I'm just getting out of here before this damn thing blows
up. He got out of the aircraft and ran away. My back was broken in three
places and also had some internal injuries. I managed to climb out on the
wing and fell down. I then recovered and staggered around thirty feet away
before I went down again. There was no fire.

This is the true story of N 90372

T.E. (Ted) French III
9182 Bay View Dr.
Lillian, AL 36549

PS I continued flying B-52s for a while, but after several years my back
couldn't take those 36 hour missions and i had to give up my AF career.
I did have over 4,000 hours.