Need help finding some serials and codes - post war accidents in/off Norway

[pdame141]

Check your PMs. I sent you the BuNo and lat/long for my Great Uncle's crash.

Best regards,
Paul

[atckyrre]

Originally Posted by pdame141

Check your PMs. I sent you the BuNo and lat/long for my Great Uncle's crash.

Best regards,
Paul

Very much appreciated, Paul. Now, to find time for all the planes I want to build ...

[pdame141]

Originally Posted by atckyrre

Very much appreciated, Paul. Now, to find time for all the planes I want to build ...

Kyrre:

I wasn't sure if you saw this prior thread on the board, but it has some interesting info on the NATO operation in which my Great Uncle died (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=40168), including mention of a Norwegian news article that you may be in a better position to track down.

For your modeling purposes, I'm attaching four pictures. The first two are of VF171 Banshees on the FDR. The first picture looks to have been taken from FDR's island/bridge and is of planes parked on the deck during the storm the day prior to my Great Uncle's accident. The weather looks horrendous and the planes are tied down. The second is a more placid picture from deck level that should give you a good idea of the paint work on the front ends and undersides of the wings of these Banshees.

The final two pictures are from the official report on my Great Uncle's accident. The first shows his plane as it traveled down the deck and began to cant to the port side of the deck. The last picture shows the plane nose down and inverted seconds before it hit the water. In this last picture you can clearly see the a/c number (111) on the top of the starboard wing as well as the white tip of the tail, which you can also see on some of the aircraft in the first two pictures.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Paul

[atckyrre]

Wow,
Those two photos are amazing! Thank you very much for filling in the blanks in this story. (Though I can't really see the 111 on the wing. I can see the large R, though)

I understand you did get access to the accident report from some governmental archives? Is it so that anyone can request information from there?
The reason I ask is I would really like to find out more about the events on the 24th of September 1957, during Exercise Strikeback. As mentioned earlier there were Three Skyrays off he Saratoga and two Trackers off Essex within hours. Would like to find out the modex for the different aircraft. This was the only operational cruise for VF-101 with Skyrays.
Edit: Yes, I did go to that linked website, but the site is very confusing. Is it at all possible for a foreigner to request information about a particular ship or operation?