Triple crash by Wolfhound Rezk Mohamed

Wolfhounds pilot Rezk Moses Mohamed has the dubious honour of crashing three planes during his service time with the 32nd Fighter Day Squadron (FDS).

First crash
On October 1, 1956 he was involved as a wingman in a flight of two F-100C Super Sabres scheduled to participate in a joint camera gunnery and interception mission. The mission was both briefed and led by 1st Lieutenant Andrew P. Spirnock, also of the 32nd Fighter Day Squadron. After take-off the lead ship experienced afterburner difficulty and the camera gunnery portion of the mission was aborted. Since no difficulty was experienced in the normal operation the leader elected to accomplish the second portion of the mission. Except for take-off neither aircraft utilized afterburner for the reminder of the mission. Three successful intercepts accomplished with no difficulties apparent.

At the forth interception the pilot heard and felt a muffled explosion accompanied by a declaration. No vibrations were transmitted through the control stick. Upon hearing and feeling the explosion Rezk immediately rolled the aircraft (54-1988) to a level attitude and brought the turtle back to the idle position. At that time the engine was running very smoothly and Rezk didn’t visually observe evidence of flames or smoke and turned full attention to flying the aircraft. The lieutenants Spirnock and Mohamed searched the same time for a suitable place to land the aircraft selecting Gilze-Rijen Air Force Base. By this time the nose of the aircraft began to drop slowly through the horizon and the pilot reached back and pulled the Ram Air Turbine Level to the “on” position, however control was not regained. The right wing lowered slightly to the right. In a dive angel of approximately 24 degrees with the altimeter unwinding rapidly and at an indicated airspeed of 450 knots the pilot elected the abandon aircraft. The aircraft came down in the Wilhelmina canal near the village of Oosterhout. Approximately 10 minutes after landing his parachute Rezk was rescued by a Royal Netherlands Air Force flight surgeon.

Second crash
On October 18, 1957 1st lieutenant Rezk Mohamed was the leader of a two plane simulated combat mission, call sign Haircut Red from Soesterberg Air Base. His wingman was 1st lieutenant John W. Jones. Rezk briefed on the current weather for the proposed flight. Pre-flight start engines and take-off at 09:12 hour were performed without incidents.

The flight climbed up to altitude and engages other aircraft in simulated combat. Red flight headed for the beacon but heard Skeeter Red on guard channel trying to locate Skeeter Silver 8 who had electrical failure and was flying at 20,000 feet in the vicinity of the beacon. Haircut Red located the aircraft and got him joined up with the other Dutch F-84F. After that they were instructed by Air Traffic Control (GCA) to climb to 3000 feet and hold due to a flight of Meteors being low on fuel. Following this holding pattern, Haircut Red turned inbound at 2000 feet with 2000 pounds of fuel remaining. They were just starting down final when GCA said, “we don’t have you --- proceed on this heading”. GCA lost at that time primary source of power and went off the air. The flight broke out over the field but was so far to the left of the runway to make a landing. Mobile Control advised Red to go to Bitburg AB, but Red declined due fuel state of 1500 pounds. Red elected to make a low visibility approach, while on base he noticed the runway lights were turned up to full intensity. Just as he turned final the lights went down. Rezk transmitted, “don’t turn down the lights”. He was till on channel 3 which was a GCA channel and tower doesn’t monitor GCA channels. Rezk passed to the left of the runway. After that mobile control came over the air on Guard channel and said to go to Volkel Air Force Base and contact Stovepipe (Sector Operations Center). Haircut Red then headed to Volkel and attempted to call Stovepipe. He tried to contact Stovepipe but realized after one transmission that Stovepipe can not transmit on guard and returned to channel 1. Mobile control of Soesterberg advised Red that Volkel was amber (below minimums) and to go to Leeuwarden Air Force Base. The instructions were issued by Dutch Operations to mobile control.

After Read had started to Leeuwarden GCA came back on the air and said they had him on scope, QSY channel 3. After Haircut Red was on final GCA transmitter became so weak that Red lead could not read GCA and Rezk said them to speak louder but to no avail. GCA finally came in readable and Red was cleared to land. He turned onto final and started down glide path when a C-47 loomed in front of him. The C-47 had been holding under Soesterberg approach instructions while Haircut Read was being working on GCA. Mohamed stated he may have unconsciously pulled up slightly to avoid the aircraft which put him higher on glide path. He broke out over the runway at about 150 feet. Lieutenant John W. Jones who was down and slightly back, spotted the runway to his right. He descended and turned his aircraft to the left and made a successful landing, touching down about 3000 feet down the runway. Now Red lead was to high to attempt a landing and was directed toward Leeuwarden and a safe bailout area over the IJselmeer. The aircraft (54-1938) hit the water 1,5 miles west of the city of Workum and the pilot landed sustained absolutely no injuries at Sneek.

Third crash
In the early afternoon of the fourteenth of November 1957 three F-100C aircraft assigned to the 32nd FDS flown by 1st Lt. Rezk Moses Mohamed (flight leader), 1st John Anderson Jr.(no.2) and 1st James A. Maggerty (no.3) took off from Soesterberg AB for a tactical training mission. Prior to the flight (Haircut White) 1st Lt. Rezk Moses Mohamed gave a thorough briefing the pilots in the flight.

After take-off Rezk reduced power to 85 percent and started a level left turn at 1000 feet altitude. During this turn lieutenant Mohamed detected smoke fumes while still on 100 percent oxygen selection. He then observed smoke pouring out the left side console of the cockpit. He called Soesterberg tower requesting an immediately landing he was on a ragged overcast and approximately 4 miles visibility. He caught sight of the field in a good position to turn left onto the final approach. The smoke in the cockpit by this time was so intense that Rezk had difficulty seeing the instruments and the airbase. A few minutes later flames appeared in the throttle quadrant and smoke increased to a condition that blocked the runway from lieutenant Mohamed vision causing him to overshoot the turn to final. He made a left climbing turn to a downwind to attempt another landing. Flames and sparks were coming out of the throttle that time and Rezk couldn’t see the instrument panel and runway due smoke. He retracted the gear and started to go around. The Mobile Control Officer asked for a gear check and Rezk answered he goes around and that he had fire in the cockpit. He then pulled the aircraft into a climb. Mobile advised that if he had a fire, he should bail out. He broke out of the overcast of Hilversum and drifted to the western edge of town and landed on the roof of an elderly home called “Villa Carla”. He received a slight bruise as a result of colliding with a chimney. His seat came down in the Coehoornstreet #36 in Hilversum and got stuck hanging from the roof of the Edelstein family house. The fuel tank of the Super Sabre caused a crater in a pasture near Hooglanderveen.

At 13:10 hour the aircraft (54-2016) crashed on the premises of a military camp (Kolonel Palmkazerne) in Bussum, close to Hilversum. At that time four soldiers walked between two of the barracks. Right at this spot, the F-100 came down killing all four servicemen. A wing detached and hit another building killing a young sergeant. The impact left a big crater and the fuel in the wings ignited, setting the barracks on fire. Pieces of burning debris were spread all over the camp and on the nearby street. Within minutes, the entire camp was mobilized and everybody helped the wounded. As usual, some civilian personnel were working on the camp. Among them was G. Schouten being the father in law of Rezk Mohamed. He heard and felt the impact and rushed to the crash site.

He recognized the pieces of being from a Super Sabre. Knowing his son in law had to make a practice mission that afternoon, he phoned his daughter who just hung up after talking to her husband. This way he quickly learned that Rezk was unharmed. The local fire brigade needed two hours to extinguish the fire. All windows had collapsed and the two barracks were badly burned. Ambulances rushed to and from the camp.

A team led by General J.E. Roberts, investigated the cause of the crash but was not able to retrieve it. They also looked into the fact that Mohamed crashed for the third time. The board of investigators could not find a relation between them and put it aside as pure coincidence.

The rumour that Rezk is dismissed by the USAF after a fourth crash in Libya is not correct. In 1966 during the Vietnam War he was TDY from Nellis AFB on some type of study of missile effectiveness.