On August 30, 1959, during a ceremonial flight over the Hippodrome in Ankara on Victory Day, two F-86 aircraft collided and crashed in the air
When I look back, besides the pleasant memories of the years I served in Merzifon, the event that I remember with sadness is the incident in which two F-86 aircraft collided and crashed in the air during a ceremonial flight over the Ankara Hippodrome on the Victory Day on August 30, 1959, and in this accident, two of our valuable pilot friends, First Lieutenant Yunus Çelem and Lieutenant Dinçer Akkan, were martyred.
When I was writing this memoir, I calculated that 56 years have passed since the date of the accident! Events fade away over time, fading from memory. Most of those who flew in the column on that day's ceremonial flight have passed into eternity. I thought that this painful event should be passed on to new generations and lessons should be learned from this incident. How did this incident, in which two of our brothers were martyred, occur? How was the formation of the column during the ceremonial flight that day? What were the factors that contributed to the collision in the air?
As a pilot who flew in the parade column on that day, I thought it would be useful to write about the incident in detail and record it in some way before the events of that flight fade from memory.
Considering that the long years that have passed since then have weakened memories, one of my fellow pilots who flew in the column on that day's ceremonial flight, Lt. Ömer Moğulkoç (a retired Turkish Airlines captain pilot) and Lt. Lt. Uluer Eceral (a retired lieutenant general), and exchanged views with them on the details of the incident.
Our airplanes participating in the ceremonies of our national holidays, which we celebrate with enthusiasm as a nation, warm the hearts and minds of our people watching them from the ground. Our people who watch the planes passing overhead with a roar feel proud of their aviators and at the same time feel safer and stronger.
Generally, Eskişehir, Bandırma and Balıkesir airports in the western region were chosen as the take-off areas for the aircrafts that would participate in the parades over Ankara Hippodrome. Parade flights were carried out with the combat jet aircraft stationed at these airfields and in columns of 9 formed from each squadron. In the formation of a flight column of 9, the leader's 3 columns would fly in front, with the other 3 columns on the left and right of the leader.
In the 1930s and 1940s, when our Air Force flew with propeller-driven combat aircraft before jets, ceremonial flights were also made over the Ankara hippodrome. I asked my elders who served in our Air Force in the 1940s about the arm shapes in the ceremonial flights they made in those years. In those years, our Air Forces flew in the form of a 9-arm formation during their ceremonial parades with Spitfire, Hurricane and Thunderbolt type combat aircraft.
Mass ceremonial flights are one of the flight missions that require very precise planning, good coordination and punctual timing. Ceremonial flights are briefly implemented as follows. After the aircraft of the type and number to participate in the ceremonial flight take off from their home airfields, they first approach Temelli/Malıköy in the north-east of Polatlı, which is the first meeting point, by following a certain route with punctual calculations, following each other at certain time intervals at eye distance, crossing the Mürted plain, turning right around Esenboğa and meeting the Hippodrome over the Çubuk Dam, and then passing over the Hippodrome at a certain altitude.
During the route over Ankara, unless meteorological conditions were difficult, the flight would fly at an altitude of approximately 3,000 feet above the ground and at a speed of 300 knots. The reason why 300 knots was chosen for ceremonial flights was both the comfort of flying at this speed in the collective column and the ease of calculating the time to be on target in terms of covering a distance of 5 miles in 1 minute.
It was essential for the leader to maintain a speed of 300 knots throughout the flight route and not to play with the throttle too much. Because if he cut the throttle and reduced the speed a little, there would be a pileup behind. If the leader in front increased the speed, the distance between the arms would widen. When flying in twos and fours, the pike flap could be used to reduce speed when desired, but the pike flap was not used to reduce speed in the ceremonial arms unless it was necessary. On one occasion, in a ceremonial F-84G formation, the leader used the dive flap to reduce speed, causing the formation to disintegrate and it took time for the formation to regroup.
Overcast skies in the western region, or low clouds along the flight path, put squadrons in a difficult situation when taking to the air for a ceremonial flyover.
Another important feature of ceremonial flights was that the trailing column had to fly slightly below the leading column in order not to be shaken by the exhaust gases of the aircraft in front.
Before the ceremonial flight, the column leaders would definitely rehearse the flight. The 9th column leaders of all squadrons from different squadrons in the western region who would participate in the parade flight would take off from their squadrons before the day of the parade, meet with other column leaders along the route and rehearse the passage over the hippodrome.
On August 30, 1959, it was decided by the Air Force Command that the parade would take place from Merzifon square, not from the Western squares. In this decision, it was considered that the weather conditions around the Western squares might not be suitable for mass flights on that day.
At that time, the two F-86 squadrons in Merzifon were under the command of the 44th Flight Group Command, which was attached to the 4th Base Command in Eskişehir. The 4th Base Command was assigned to participate in the parade with a total of 36 aircraft, 12 F-86s from the 141st Squadron in Eskişehir and 12 F-86s each from the 142nd and 143rd Squadrons in Merzifon.
The day before the parade, the planes of the 141st squadron in Eskişehir arrived at Merzifon square under the leadership of Staff Colonel Mustafa Azaklı, Commander of the 4th Base. At that time, the Commander of the 44th Flight Group in Merzifon was Staff Colonel Selçuk Okyay.
On the morning of August 30, 1959, the day of the ceremonial flight, all pilots who would participate in the flight gathered in the briefing hall. Since there were no computers in the briefing halls then, as there are now, and there was no possibility of projecting the programs written on the computer on the screen, the programs were written with chalk on the blackboard in the briefing halls. There were no computers and a projection device to project the program on the screen was not yet in use at that time.
When the Commander and all the pilots gathered in the briefing room at the briefing time, it was explained in which formation the 36 aircraft would fly.
In the flight column order drawn on the blackboard that day, the squadrons were written in columns of 12, not in columns of 9 as in previous ceremonial flights. The fourth aircraft, which was added to the columns of 3 forming the columns of 9, was to fly in close pursuit (in aviation terms, at the gate) of the column leaders.
In front of the 36th parade column would be the 12s of Eskişehir 141st Squadron, behind it the 12s of Merzifon 142nd Squadron, and behind that the 12s of Merzifon 143rd Squadron. The leader of the parade column was Staff Colonel Mustafa Azaklı, Commander of the 4th Base. The leader of the column of 12 behind him was Staff Major İrfan Özaydınlı, Commander of the 142nd Squadron, and the leader of the column of 12 at the back was Staff Colonel Selçuk Okyay, Commander of the 44th Flight Group in Merzifon.
I was written in the flight program as number two, to the right of our Squadron Commander, Staff Lieutenant Commander İrfan Özaydınlı, the leader of the column of 12 in the middle. Staff Lieutenant Commander İrfan Özaydınlı was a highly knowledgeable, disciplined, caring, kind, humble, tolerant and gifted commander whom we all loved very much. Another characteristic of him was that he had a strong memory. Every week on Saturday nights, a dinner was organized at the officers' casino. At the cocktail reception before the dinner, I used to marvel at how our Squadron Commander remembered so many names, not only of our squadron, but also of the other personnel of the base and their spouses who attended the dinner. He used to call me "my namesake" because we both had the same name. We learned a lot from him in the squadron. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of General. On August 1, 1999, he passed away. May my dear and valuable Squadron Commander rest in peace!
During the flight briefing, it was reported that the weather over both Merzifon and Ankara would be clear and suitable for flying during the day.
In the early 1950s, the F-86 was the most perfect fighter/interceptor of its time. It became famous as the MIG Killer because it shot down many MIG aircraft in the Korean War. However, its time in the air was short. In addition to the fuselage and in-wing tanks, the F-86 carried two fuel tanks of 120 gallons each (240 gallons in total) under the wings. (For comparison, an F-84F aircraft carries two fuel tanks of 450 gallons each under the wings, a total fuel load of 900 gallons, which is about four times more than the fuel load carried by the F-86 in the under-wing tank. The F-86's low endurance was always taken into account as a limiting factor in mission planning.
Before the briefing that morning, the names of the pilots who would fly in the ceremonial column were written in chalk on the blackboard in the form of four columns and the flight column formation was drawn on the blackboard in the form of small airplanes. (NOTE: As the years pass, which pilot flew in which column fades from memory. I wish I had kept a copy of the flight program with the names of the pilots who flew in the column that day).
In the flight briefing, the arm shape drawn on the board was as follows:
August 30, 1959 - Arm formation of F-86s participating in the ceremony from Merzifon
I was the youngest pilot among the 142nd Squadron pilots participating in the parade flight. It had been a year since I had joined the squadron after completing my pilot training in the United States, and I had never flown in mass parades before.
The three pilots flying in the 12's of the 143rd Squadron behind us were Lt. Lt. Uluer Eceral (Retired Lieutenant General), Lt. Sinan Bilge (the late retired Lieutenant General) and Lt. Dinçer Akkan, who was martyred in the accident, were from the 1957 cycle of the Air Force Academy after me. All three of my friends were selected to be sent to Canada for flight training when they were 2nd year students at the Air Force Academy and were sent to Canada after they were successful in the test flights in Izmir-Gaziemir. After successfully completing their flight training in Canada, they were commissioned in Merzifon in February of that year. All three of them were the youngest pilots flying in the column that day. As of August 30, the date of the accident, they had approximately 6-7 months of flight experience in the squadron.
As I have explained above, in the ceremonial parades held in the past, the 9th column formation from the fighter jet squadrons was used. Even before the transition to jets, combat propeller planes would also participate in the parade flight in the formation of 9 columns. Therefore, the flight that was planned to take off from Merzifon on August 30, 1959, with 36 adjacent columns was the first flight in the history of our Air Force. After the accident over the Hippodrome, no more ceremonial flights were made in the 36-strong contiguous column, and this flight was also the last flight in the history of our Air Force.
By the way, let me also mention the following. One of the factors that made the F-86 an excellent fighter was that it had flight controls that operated with 3,200 psi pressure and instantly obeyed every command given by the pilot. However, these over-pressurized flight controls required the pilot to give precise control while flying at high speeds. Because at speeds above 400 knots, the airplane could enter an up-and-down oscillating motion called pitch-up.
In the flight briefing that morning, the way the mission was implemented was explained as follows. Take-offs were to be made at intervals of 6 seconds each in the double arm. After the take-offs were completed, the column of 36 was to assemble as drawn on the board, following the leader. In order not to consume too much fuel at low altitude and to avoid critical fuel on landing, an altitude of 15. 000 feet altitude to avoid wasting too much fuel at low altitudes and having critical fuel for landing, and then flying in a straight flight from this altitude on the route in the direction of Ankara while maintaining the 36 adjacent column formation, starting to descend in the leader's column at a certain distance from Ankara, meeting the Hippodrome over the Çubuk Dam, and after completing the passage over the Hippodrome, the 141st squadron aircraft were to return to the Eskişehir route and land in Eskişehir, and the Merzifon aircraft were to climb on the Merzifon route and continue on the route, landing in columns of 4.
The pilots who would participate in the ceremonial flight took off at the given time and started the engines. We made a rule according to the column order and 36 airplanes took our places for take-off on the runway. During the ceremonial flights, a reserve aircraft from each squadron would also take off behind the column, and if for any reason an aircraft had to leave the ceremonial column, it would fill its place. At the minute determined by counting down from the hour and minute of passage over the hippodrome, the leader released the brakes and took off. Each squadron took off in columns of 2, at intervals of 6 seconds each. All the columns along the route were gathered in the column as drawn on the board during the briefing. It took some time for the 36th column to gather on the route. After the ceremonial column took our places in the adjacent column of 36 as shown in the sketch above, we continued our flight in the direction of Ankara.
Now here I should mention an important point for my friends who are not pilots. The pilot flying in pursuit of an aircraft has to fly slightly below the exhaust of the aircraft in front of him in order not to be affected by the exhaust gas (jet wash) of the aircraft in front of him and shake his plane. Therefore, when the 36th parade formation was flying on course that day, our 12s, flying behind the 12s of the 141st Squadron in front, were flying slightly below their exhaust. Likewise, the 143rd Squadron's 12s, flying behind our 12s, were flying below the exhaust of our aircraft.
As we approached Ankara, the leader of the 36th parade column began to descend from the altitude of 15,000 feet we were flying at, in the direction of the Çubuk Dam, the point where we would turn to meet the Hippodrome.
I have already mentioned that the parade column leader should not use the dive flaps unless he had to, and it was also customary not to reduce the throttle below 80% rpm during the descent, so that the aircraft in the column would not have any difficulty in maintaining their positions.
I should also mention that due to the aerodynamic characteristics of the F-86's backward arched wing structure, compared to the straight winged F-84G, the speed increased quickly in the glide.
I could feel that the speed increased in a short time as the leader started to descend. Let me make a small reminder here. In a tight formation flight, the pilots flying in the leader's column focus all their attention on the position of the leader aircraft, which they fly within a few meters of, and the movements it will make, and they do not look at their flight watches in the cockpit in order not to distract themselves.
I could see out of the corner of my eye that we were approaching the northern outskirts of Ankara. As usual, the city was covered with a light haze. As we were approaching from the north of the city in the direction of the Hippodrome, we were continuing to descend. I could feel that our speed was gradually increasing with the slight descent. As the speed continued to increase, I was worried that both myself and one of my friends in the wing would enter the pitch-up situation, which is caused by the aerodynamic structure of the F-86 aircraft and occurs at high speed. In the meantime, as the speed increased, I was having difficulty holding on to the arm. I was thinking to myself that we must have gone well over 400 knots, and I was thinking, oh, let's get over the hippodrome as soon as possible.
Ceremonial Passing of F-86 Aircraft in the 16th Arm
NOTE: The photo above shows the ceremonial passage of the F-86 MK3 type aircraft of the Canadian Air Force in the adjacent column of 16. Our parade over the Ankara Hippodrome was carried out in the 36th column with a similar adjacent column formation.
If one looks carefully at the photograph, it will be seen that the trailing quad flies slightly below the extension of the exhaust of the quad in front of it, as I have explained earlier.
We passed over the grandstand of the hippodrome at a very low altitude of about 200 to 300 feet. I was thinking in my mind that we had finally passed over that racetrack, when suddenly I saw a great illumination on my left rear. Now imagine how big a fireball must have been created during the collision, so that I was flying in front of that column, just behind the right wing of my leader, in the tight column, and I could see the illumination on my left rear! When there was a big illumination behind me, I thought to myself, "Oh no, they have collided." In the meantime, a voice on the radio said, "Chelem arm has hit the ground," and another voice said, "Two airplanes have collided." There were some more angry conversations on the radio, which I can't remember exactly word for word right now.
When there was a collision, the arms suddenly scattered in the air and the airplanes in the arm pulled left and right. I felt as if I was going to be hit by an airplane from the column coming from behind, and after flying in the forward direction for another five or ten seconds, I checked to see if there were any airplanes around and turned back to the left, in the direction of Merzifon, and started climbing.
The place where the two F-86s crashed.
When I completed the climb and completed my return, I saw a fire caused by aircraft parts at five or six points near the back of the hippodrome. In such a situation, one would think that the pilot involved in the incident would be in a great panic, but the pilot did not panic and did what was necessary for the flight. I returned to the Merzifon route and continued my flight in the direction of Merzifon by climbing to the altitude that was told in the morning flight briefing.
After the collision, both our wing and the wing of the 143rd Squadron flying behind us were scattered in the air. As I continued to climb as one on the Merzifon route, I could see planes on my right, left and above me flying as one in the direction of Merzifon.
Immediately after the collision, I was thinking to myself, "Çelem kol hit the ground! Two three planes collided", but how many planes had collided? Who were the pilots involved? The collision happened at a very low altitude. I was thinking that since there was a fireball in the air when the planes collided, the pilots probably didn't have time to parachute out.
I landed on the square as a single person and came to the parking lot. All of my mechanic friends were waiting in the parking lot en masse. For years, the mechanics had gotten used to the fact that the airplanes going on missions always came to the first approach on the arm and landed by pulling a puff, no matter how many planes had taken off. This sight had almost become a part of their lives. If there were fewer planes than the number of planes they were assigned to fly, they would immediately know that there was an anomaly in the air. On that day, when they saw that the airplanes that were going to take off in a collective column did not land in a column, but separately, they immediately realized that an undesirable and bad situation had occurred in the air.
When I parked my plane and came down from the cockpit very upset, my mechanic friends gathered around me and asked what had happened. I told them that planes from the 143rd Squadron had collided over the hippodrome, but I did not know how many planes and who had collided. The mechanics did not know the number of planes that had collided and the names of the pilots. I couldn't find a vehicle to go to the squadron in the parking lot, so I went to the squadron on foot with my parachute on my back.
When I arrived at the squadron, I learned from my friends that First Lieutenant Yunus Çelem and Lieutenant Dinçer Akkan from the 143rd Squadron had been involved in a collision, and with the news that had just come from Ankara, unfortunately, both of our pilots had been martyred.
The pilots of our squadron got off the flight and went to the nearby 143rd Squadron building and shared our friends' grief.
One of our two martyred pilots, Lt. Yunus Çelem, one of our two martyred pilots, was one of the first graduates of the Air Force Academy, which was established in Eskişehir in 1951, in 1953. After completing his pilot training in the USA, he was assigned to Merzifon 143rd Squadron. Although we were not in the same squadron, we heard from friends who flew in that squadron that he was a very good flier. He was the Training Officer of the squadron. When he was martyred, his wife was expecting a baby. A baby boy was born and they named him after him. May our dear brother Yunus Çelem rest in peace!
Our other martyred pilot, Lieutenant Commander Dinçer Akkan, was from the 1957 cycle of the Air Force Academy. Dinçer Akkan was sent to Canada as a 2nd year student as one of the few pilot candidates selected for pilot training from the 1957 cycle. After graduating from the Canadian flight school, he joined the 143rd Squadron about 6-7 months after I started my duty in Merzifon. He was single and lived in a rented house in the city with his aunt who had raised him. One thing I always remember about Dinçer Akkan was that he played the saz very well. When we would get together at the officer's casino on weekends, he would bring his saz to the casino and play beautiful Anatolian melodies on his saz at the large dinner table where we would sit with our friends, and we would sing along to those melodies. I myself had been very interested in music since my childhood. It must have been because of this interest in music that I had a great affection and affinity for people who played a good musical instrument. Dinçer Akkan was a friend of ours who played the saz very skillfully. Although many years have passed, even now, as I write these lines, I can still see the movement of his fingers on the frets of the long handle of the saz. When Dinçer Akkan was selected to be sent to Canada for flight training, he also took his saz to Canada. My close friend Şadi Ergüvenç (Retired Lieutenant General), who was selected as Dinçer Akkan from the Air Force Academy's 1957 class and sent to Canada for flight training, recently told me a nice story about Dinçer Akkan's experience on the plane he was on while taking his instrument to Canada. When Dinçer Akkan was boarding a foreign airline plane in Yeşilköy to go to Canada, he did not want to give his saz to the cargo hold of the plane and boarded the plane carrying it in his hand. Of course, his instrument did not fit in the luggage compartment at the top of the passenger cabin, so he took it with him. Both the cabin crew and the foreign passengers wondered what it was and one of the stewardesses asked him what it was. When Akkan said that it was a musical instrument called a saz, the stewardesses asked him to play it. When Dinçer Akkan placed the saz on his lap and played it beautifully, both passengers and cabin crew liked it very much and applauded him after each piece he played. Akkan also became the favorite of the beautiful stewardesses on that flight. At the language school in Canada and later at the flight school, he used to play the saz at the dinner meetings held at the Officers' Club on weekends. The Canadians and the student officers of NATO countries who went to Canada for flight training would watch with curiosity this long-stemmed instrument, which they were seeing for the first time in their lives, and listen with interest to the Anatolian melodies played by Akkan on his saz. May my dear brother Dinçer Akkan, whom I served with in Merzifon for a very short time and whom I loved very much, rest in peace!
The incident of the collision on the hippodrome must have stuck in my mind so much that I can remember the details of the event very well, even after all these years have passed. I asked Ömer Moğulkoç and Uluer Eceral, who flew in the column of 12 right behind us during the parade that day, about the points where I hesitated in case I might be mistaken in remembering these details, and I asked their opinions.
I thought that our altitude was around 200-300 feet as our parade column flew very low over the grandstand of the hippodrome. To find out whether this altitude in my memory was correct, I telephoned Ömer Moğulkoç and Uluer Eceral and asked them what the flight altitude was that they remembered as we flew over the grandstand. Ömer Moğulkoç insisted that our flight altitude was no more than 100 feet as we flew over the grandstand. Uluer Eceral said that the altitude over the grandstand could not have been over 200 feet, because he had avoided hitting the flagpole by pulling it up at the last moment. He also said that one of his friends in their squadron saw the high, round roof of the main building of Gazi University, which was just to the right of the Hippodrome according to the direction of passage, and that he avoided hitting the roof by pulling up at the last moment.
The question immediately arises as to how long after the planes passed over the hippodrome the collision occurred. I estimated that the collision occurred between 3 and 5 seconds after the planes had passed over the roof of the Hippodrome grandstand. Ömer Moğulkoç said that the collision occurred in less than three seconds after they had passed over the roof of the grandstand. Uluer Eceral also said that he was sure that the collision happened within three seconds at most after he went over the bleachers.
Looking back now, I don't even want to think about what could have happened if this collision had happened only 10 seconds earlier, and not 3 seconds after the ceremonial column had crossed the bleachers. The August 30th Victory Day parade was being watched by the then President, Prime Minister and dignitaries, as well as the Chief of General Staff, Force Commanders, generals and senior officers, foreign military attachés, and many of their spouses. If the collision had happened 10 seconds earlier, it would have been one of the biggest disasters in aviation history.
Since our column was in front of the column of the two colliding planes, I did not see the moment of the collision, I only realized that there had been a collision when the ball of flame in the air flashed on my left rear. Ömer Moğulkoç, who saw the collision and was flying as the number 3 of the leading column, just to the right of the two colliding planes, and who was the most vivid witness of this collision, told me the following story at a recent dinner we had together.
Their 12-plane column, which was flying in pursuit of us, was flying far enough below us along the route that they could not be affected by the exhaust fumes of our planes. After turning towards the Hippodrome over the Çubuk Dam, while the leading columns continued to descend, they continued to fly under the exhaust gas of the leading columns. As they were approaching the Hippodrome, an airplane from our 12-plane column in front of Lt. Ömer Moğulkoç entered into an up and down oscillation movement we call pitch-up. Just above the Hippodrome grandstand, probably because the altitude of his column leader was already too low, he could not go any lower and turned to the left towards Lt. Lt. Çelem's column of four in order to get rid of the effect of the exhaust gas (jet wash) of the column in front. At that moment, Lt. Akkan's plane hit Lt. Çelem's plane!
When Lt. Lt. Moğulkoç heard the words "Çelem's arm hit the ground" and "Two planes collided" on the radio immediately after the collision, he first thought that the four planes in Lt. Çelem's arm and the other two planes, a total of six planes, collided and fell to the ground. Until he landed in Merzifon and arrived at the parking lot, he thought that six planes from the arm had collided and crashed. However, after arriving at the fleet, he learned that the number of planes that hit the ground was two, not six.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my article, after the crash, I flew straight for about 5-10 seconds, and when I turned back in the direction of Merzifon, I looked at the terrain below and determined that the planes were on fire in 5-6 points. In the news reports about the crash that appeared in the newspapers the next day, we learned that the pieces of the plane fell on a nearby house, and luckily there was no loss of life as no one was home at the time.
My 1956 classmate Orhan Yaylagül called me after reading my article about the accident at the August 30 parade. At that time, Lt. Yaylagül was serving as a C-47 pilot in Etimesgut Transportation Squadron. He was attending the ceremony with his friend Lt. Aykut Özel went to the hippodrome that day to watch the ceremony. In the grandstand, they watched the arrival of the 36 F-86 column from the Çubuk Dam side. From a pilot's point of view, they noticed that the F-86 column was coming from a very low altitude. As the planes passed over the hippodrome, they heard an explosion and the sky lit up. There were screams in the grandstand.
I explained how the accident happened on the flight deck. I learned what happened in the stands at the time of the accident from the perspective of a pilot in the stands with the additional input of my friend Orhan Yaylagül.
This is the story of the collision of two F-86 planes during the Victory Day parade of 36 planes from three F-86 squadrons of the 4th Base Command in Eskişehir on August 30, 1959, which took off from Merzifon in a tight formation, and the martyrdom of two of our brother pilots in the crashed planes!
As I write the story of that painful event 56 years after this event that saddened us so much, I wish God's mercy to my brothers, First Lieutenant Yunus Çelem and Lieutenant Dinçer Akkan, who were martyred in the accident. May they rest in peace!
I commemorate with love, respect and mercy those of our elders and friends who served in the 36 F-86 parade column of that day in the intervening years.
İrfan Sarp
Contact: [email protected]
