Crash 1981 RNLAF Open House at Soesterberg

On September 12, 1981 circa 15:00 hour Captain Dennis R. Kuehler departed Gilze-Rijen AFB (in the south of the Netherlands) and set course to Soesterberg AB for a planned aerial demonstration during the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) Open House. He was assigned to the 22 TFS/36TFW, Bitburg AB, Germany and was flying a F-15C Eagle (BT 80-0007).

At 15:18 hour, he began his demonstration at Soesterberg from a no flap low approach entry (offset approximately 1500 feet to the left) to runway 31. The spectators were aligned along the north side of runway 13/31, and all maneuvers were flown in reference to this runway. The demonstration terminated with a pass down runway 31 show line, a pitch up to 25 degrees nose high, followed by a 450 degree roll and turn to downwind for runway 27 (the landing runway). The pilot lowered gear and flaps abeam the overrun, and began a left base turn with the speed brake extended.

At 15:25 hour, the Eagle crashed 168 feet north, 51 feet past the end of the overrun. The aircraft slid across the overrun and came to rest 183 feet south of the runway after sliding a total distance of 1557 feet. During the slide the aircraft rotated in a clockwise direction, and came to rest on a heading of 061 degrees. The pilot was uninjured and completed a ground egress. Air force fire personnel responded immediately and extinguished a fire in the number one fuel tank area. After the crash the Open House was canceled and visitors were lead to the gates. Later that week the written off aircraft was picked up by the USAF.

The BT 80-0007 was nicknamed "Shrimp boat". It was summer and the squadron was going to have a big party, so on Sunday the pilot, who was on a cross-country mission to Scandinavia, bought a whole bunch of Norwegian shrimp, which was packed in its own frozen brine and ice. He stored the boxes of shrimp in the large area behind the ejection seat Sunday evening. Well, given the temperatures and the two additional sorties he flew on Monday, there was naturally some melting and leaking from the boxes behind the seat. When he landed at Bitburg the pilot spot cleaned the area behind the seat, but unbeknownst to him the now-liquid brine had made its way into lots of areas of the aircraft. After about a week of flying a crew chief noted lots of rust behind the pilot seat. A closer inspection revealed sheet metal damage, and some corrosion on wiring and tubing. When the story of how this happened came out, and even though the maintenance folks didn't find it amusing, pilots being who they are could not help but see the humor in the story and so the aircraft was given a name: "Shrimp Boat". It was determined that the damage was so extensive that the regular Wing Level sheet-metal repair shop and maintenance could not handle the job, so the aircraft had to be sent to F-15 PDM (Programmed Depot Maintenance).

On June 8, 1987 Captain Dennis R. Kuehler (call sign Stud 31) and at that time assigned to the 27 TFS was killed during a low altitude manoeuvring. His aircraft (F-15 Eagle FF 81-0056) impacted the ground at Amilia County VA.

The nose of the 80-0007 is now owned by Gene Buckle (website) a private citizen in Washington State and will be turned into a life-sized F-15 flight simulator. Buckle found the ruined cockpit in 2000 at the Olympia Air Museum. The previous owner wanted $1,500 -- about a dollar a pound. When he got it, it had been sitting outside for about 10 years, the corrosion wasn't really so bad, considering the environment it had been in, but the avionics were gone, the electronics, everything. So he's rebuilding it, piece by piece. He'built am ejection seat from scratch and a guy on eBay sold him a genuine F-15 throttle.