Summary: A flight of three F-100 aircraft departed Williams AFB for an Air Combat Maneuvers training mission to be flown at 35,000 feet over an area roughly 40 miles east-southeast of the base. During the third engagement, Instructor Pilot, Captain Robert Vickery, and his student, 2nd Lt. Terrel Johnson, spotted the contrails of the two opposing F-100 fighters and increased their airspeed to catch the flight. At 35,000 feet, the student went into a 2 G turn at approximately a 45 degree angle at 275 knots airspeed. The opposing fighters approached the flight from their 5 o'clock position and Captain Vickery told the student to decrease his rate of turn until the lead F-100 came within range. As Captain Vickery was looking aft to observe the approach of the attacking fighters, he noted an increase in the acceleration and felt an onset of the adverse yaw. He immediately turned his attention to the control of the aircraft and neutralized the stick and used the rudder to correct for the left adverse yaw. The aircraft then went into a right wing turn-down, which the instructor thought was the desired recovery, however the aircraft then pitched up to the right and fell into a right flat spin.

The instructor attempted a normal spin recovery with full aft stick, full right aileron, and full left rudder, but to no avail so he told the student they would need to abandon the aircraft. The student was having difficulty grasping the seat handles since he was thrown to the upper left of the cockpit due to centrifugal force, and was finally able to push himself back into his seat and grab the handles. The instructor jettisoned the canopy and tried to get the student to eject first since he was unsure whether the student could make it. The student assured him that he would be able to, so the instructor fired his seat at 14,000 feet above terrain and the student followed and fired his seat at 13,000 feet.

The aircraft continued a flat spin until it impacted the ground on a 4,000 foot mountain in very rugged terrain southeast of Superior, AZ. The pilots landed 3 miles south of the crash and were recovered by a helicopter within 45 minutes.  

In 2000, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Vickery about the mishap and hear his description of how the events played out. He served in the Navy during WWII, and then went into pilot training with the Air Force in 1951 and eventually retired in 1974.