19.June 1962 - 50 years ago

In Memoriam

Bernd Kuebart, Oberleutnant WaSLw 10
Wolfgang von Stürmer, Oberleutnant WaSLw 10
Heinz Frye, Oberleutnant WaSLw 10
Jon Speer, Captain (USAF IP) WaSLw 10

Crashed during demo exercise into an open brown coal-mine near Bonn killing the pilots of all 4 aircraft of the team. The aircraft flew into the ground during a steep-dive near Knapsack. The pilots were Capt Jon Speer (USAF, team-leader and teacher with WaSLw 10), Olt Bernd Kuebart (ex JaboG 31), Olt Heinz Frye (ex JaboG 34) and Olt Wolfgang von Stürmer (ex WaSLw 10, Oldenburg). On this day the general repetition was held for the "phase in" of the F-104G within the JaboG 31 Boelcke at Norvenich under Wing Commander Gerhard Barkhorn. The highlight of the flying program in front of a number of high rank officers and politicians would be a 4-ship F-104F formation demonstration by 4th Staffel of WaSLw 10. As trained often before, the 4 aircraft started in a "finger-tip-formation" although the runway of Norvenich was not very wide. But without tip tanks it was no problem. Both first flown figures were executed perfectly. Major Tom Perfili (USAF teacher team) did some solo flights during the moments the team was out of sight. Then in the east direction, some 8 km away, a lot of smoke was seen and a few minutes later it was clear that the German Air Force lost 4 aircraft with 4 of their best pilots. To achieve a way for getting back to the runway/demo area faster for the next figure, Jon Speer decided to make a 180 degree turn by cutting a small cumulus-cloud in a steep diamond formation. But he overturned the aircraft that much that for all 4 aircraft no possibility could be found to recover because they flew vertical towards the ground out of the cloud. This is what happened following all of the eye-witnesses on the ground. Also the investigation found out the same cause of the accident after they had little thoughts about a mid-air collision. Wolfgang von Stürmer, flying in the aft-position "slot" of the formation had the best overview and tried to recover from the overturn in which he failed.