F-100D - 56-3223 - crash 2 August 1963 - 48th TFW
 

Looking for name of pilot and cause of crash of F-100D Super Sabre with serial 56-3223 at Nevele, Belgium, on 2 August 1963.
Pilot had ejected safely and was picked up by a Koksijde/Coxyde based Belgian helicopter.
F-100D was with 492nd TFS, 48th TFW, RAF Lakenheath. Reportedly had taken off from Laon airbase, France, so a flight to home station likely.

Nevele is some 20 kms west of G(h)ent. Joebaugher has "southern Belgium", but perhaps that's where troubles began.

All leads welcome, thanks.

Regards,
Leendert

Re: F-100D - 56-3223 - crash 2 August 1963 - 48th TFW
 

Received necessary documents: failure of horizontal stabilizer control system during navigation training flight. Two-ship formation flying from RAF Lakenheath on a hi-lo-hi mission to a fictional target near Chaumont, France, turn back and straight home. For one F-100 the flight ended at Nevele, Belgium... Pilot was a USAF major, name left blank.

Not happy times for 492nd TFS: two weeks or so before two of its F-100's had collided off the English coast, with one drowned pilot (tangled in parachute) and both planes lost...

Regards,
Leendert

Re: F-100D - 56-3223 - crash 2 August 1963 - 48th TFW
 

A final addition: pilot was Major Roy J. Girard Jr. (1925-1990).

Leendert