February 2nd was the 55th anniversary of the Big Sandy Cornfield Bomber's landing in a field north of town. What made the story so remarkable is that the pilot of the F-106 ejected from the airplane to escape a flat spin that would've inevitably resulted in a crash. The act of ejecting seems to have corrected the spin on the aircraft's flight path, causing the aircraft to level out and slowly descend, ultimately executing a near perfect belly landing, with minimal damage done to the aircraft. Two weeks ago, the Mountaineer ran a story covering the basic facts of the landing. This week, we will be looking at some of the additional information surrounding the story, including the upcoming theatrical production taking place this summer at Homecoming.
Though I had heard a little bit about the story of the Cornfield Bomber in the past, most accounts I had been told around town contained conflicting information, including stark disagreements regarding where the event itself took place. I've spoken with locals who swore it happened in nearly every part of the surrounding countryside. I didn't set out to learn about the event in earnest until the Big Sandy Theater Company made the decision to put on the stage play about the Cornfield Bomber at Homecoming this summer. Amanda Hoffman, who is one of the directors for the theater, posted on Big Sandy Needs looking for information about the landing location and other specifics.
The post prompted all sorts of responses from locals and inspired me to begin reading up on the story in earnest. At that time, I discovered that the 55th anniversary of the event itself was fast approaching. Amanda's post on Facebook produced the first solid explanation as to where the F-106 actually landed. My efforts were complicated by the fact that someone cut out the related articles from the archived copies of the Mountaineer at the Library and the fact that the 1970 editions are absent from online collections.
David Drga, a Big Sandy native, deduced the location of the landing based on the available photographs. He had heard about the landing from another Montanan who works in the aviation industry. He explained: "After reading several articles and watching some short videos online. Curious about where EXACTLY the plane landed, I kept searching, but never could find a more precise answer other than 'Big Sandy.' I took to GoogleEarth to see if I could find the spot. Based on every article I found saying Big Sandy, and the picture with the elevators in the background, I reasoned the site must have been out southeast of town on IX ground, but the mountains in the background were wrong. After looking closer at the grain elevators, I couldn't reconcile the picture with the elevators that are (and were) in Big Sandy. I think that led to me just "traveling" up the highway on Google StreetView to find the right background. This led me to Box Elder. The most convincing features were the bend in Box Elder Creek and the layout of the fences. The visual distance from town was about right and the elevators were close enough to a few older aerial views, I was able to find from before the elevators were torn down." From there, David began asking locals, specifically Glenn Cook and Jim Drga, who were able to recollect seeing the airplane loaded up for transport home close to Box Elder.
I spoke with other locals who were able to confirm that the landing happened right on the edge of Box Elder, just before the spot where Box Elder Creek crosses Highway 87. Oddly enough, Box Elder doesn't appear in many articles related to the story. I am pretty sure this is a result of the landing happening in Chouteau County. The sheriff from Big Sandy went to the scene and cordoned it off. My guess is that this is why the event became associated with our town instead of the much closer community of Box Elder.
Quite a few locals were able to confirm the accuracy of David's guess, which was within 200 feet of the actual location based on the photos I was able to obtain from the Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum. I spoke with locals who described standing and listening to the jet engines screaming in the field as the Delta Dart sat in the snow. Farmers and ranchers described the skies over town being full of helicopters and airplanes the day of landing, with the
Air Force Base sending out all manner of aircraft to take photographs and observe the goings on. Others told me about snow piles on either side of the aircraft, which they had dug out of the snow as they prepared to haul it back to the base on the back of a truck. Photos of the recovery effort from the museum reveal that they jacked the aircraft up until it was high enough to extend the landing gear.
The play, which prompted recent discussions is The Big Sandy, by Mike Hesford. The unusual title is a nod to the Cohen brothers Cult Classic film, The Big Lebowski. Hesford wrote the play 8 years ago. He teaches drama classes at Jefferson High School in Boulder, MT. Frustrated over the quality of stage plays available for school productions, Mike began writing his own scripts for his students. In search of ideas, he Googled strange historic facts and incidences. The story of the Cornfield Bomber caught his eye because Big Sandy is relatively close to his own home town. He explained his reaction: "That's right up the road here. That's crazy. I knew nothing about it, and so I started spinning an idea in my head. Next thing I know, this is the play I write." The play itself is based around the event, but doesn't set out to be historically accurate. In the opening lines, a pair of characters discuss the "based on a true story" aspect of the production and agree that it's about "10% true story."
Mike explained that the play has only been produced once by one of his classes, around 8 years ago. One of the attendees was from Big Sandy and loved the show. They, in turn, told members of the Big Sandy Theater Company about the show. They, in turn, reached out to Mike and got permission to put on the show locally. One of Mike's classes will be putting on a production of the play the weekend of February 20th and 21st this year as well.
Mike pointed out that he is currently revising the script itself for the summer production.
Amanda's Facebook post produced another welcome surprise for the theater company and myself. It is resulted in our making contact with (retired) Major Faust, the pilot of the Cornfield Bomber. I am currently working on scheduling an interview with the pilot and looking forward to hearing his fascinating account of the unlikely landing. In addition, he and his wife are looking to travel to the area this summer to attend the show. Watch for future information and an interview with Major Faust.
