‘My RSO, Ed Bethart, made his infamous comment, “Don’t tell me that’s the other engine.” My answer, “Ed, that’s the other engine.” SR-71 Blackbird pilot Major David “Dave” Peters.
Major David “Dave” Peters, a pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird, had a passion for flying from an early age. At just 7 years old, he began gathering photographs of airplanes, corresponding with manufacturers to obtain images that covered every inch of his childhood bedroom walls. On April 28, 1979, while descending back to his home base in Okinawa, Japan, with RSO Ed Bethart in the rear seat, Dave found himself with only one functioning engine. Suddenly, the second engine failed as well. Aware that the SR-71 doesn’t glide well at all, he had to act quickly! Dave began instructing Ed to eject when suddenly he heard a voice…
Peters recalls,
“You’re OK, keep going.” The voice was not in my head. Ed said he never heard it. I heard it again, and I felt calm, and I did exactly that. I kept going.
‘It started with a rocket ride, one pass through the Korean DMZ unrefueled. Everything was great until I came out of AB (afterburner) for the descent. Almost immediately, the left engine started surging and the compressor stalling with the EGT going way past limits. I told Ed I was going to shut it down. So, he went through the checklists, and we declared an emergency and requested descent to a precision straight-in. We were setting up and not particularly worried because we had done this more than once.
‘Unfortunately, at about 15,000 ft in the descent setting up for a downwind, the other engine started surging and compressor stalling. Ed made his infamous comment, “Don’t tell me that’s the other engine.” My answer, “Ed, that’s the other engine.” So, he says, “What are you going to do?” I said, “Restart the other engine, so call approach and tell them we are going visual, and get the tower, and I’ll talk to them.” So, I started a pretty steep dive to get enough speed for a restart, which I was able to get. The engine was still operating the same way, so it wasn’t doing anything but giving us hydraulics for flight controls. I left the other one running for the same purpose. Ed got the tower, and I told them we were running out of engines and were visual for a modified straight-in. They cleared us for whatever we needed.
‘We were doing a little over 500 KIAS and turning onto a descending base leg, trying to get the speed down to lower the gear. I had Ed get ahold of Mobil to let them know. Tom Keck and Tim Shaw were Mobil, and they had Bob Cunningham and Jim Sullivan with them. I didn’t find out till later that Jim had told them all, “Don’t say a word; the last thing they need is help.”
‘We kept slowing, and I threw the gear down at about 350 KIAS. At the same time, the right engine ceased. The gear came partway down, so I pulled the emergency release handle, and the mains came down and locked, but the nose wasn’t down. I was constantly readjusting and trimming to keep the flight controls as close to neutral as possible because I didn’t want any violent movement if everything quit. That’s when I said, “Ed, if I say get out, if you say what… you’ll be talking to yourself.”
‘I kept letting it slow, and about 5 miles on the final, the nose came down and locked. I felt like we had everything set up well and were geared to keep going. According to the MRS, the second engine quit at 11 seconds on final, which, at the speed we were traveling, was a little over a mile and a half. I think because I kept keeping the trim as close as possible, there were not any big changes, and windmilling may have been enough. At any rate, we touched down at about 240 KIAS, popped the chute, and eventually used emergency braking to stop.
‘Lew Sultze was the first one there with a pickup; he backed up under the chine, and we exited.
‘It turned out to be very fortunate that we were able to get it down because it was determined that the cause was faulty fuel hydraulic pumps that failed. When they looked further, they found the same faulty pumps on the other airplane at Kadena, two at Beale, and one at Mildenhall.
‘We received DFCs, and I was awarded the Koren Koligian Jr. trophy, which recognizes the most meritorious flight for all US military for the year.’
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Photo by Mike Freer – Touchdown-aviation via Wikipedia and David Peters
