The crashed F-101 Voodoo had been in storage at the secretive Area 51 in Nevada for more than 20 years, and it was broken up and put in place of the F-117 Nighthawk debris.
The Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk was created after the U.S. Air Force sought an aircraft that could strike important targets while avoiding enemy radar detection. During the 1970s, advances in materials and engineering methods made it possible to build an aircraft with stealth capabilities. This led to the development of the F-117A, the first stealth aircraft to enter operational service.
The first F-117A took to the air on June 18, 1981, and its first operational unit, the 4450th Tactical Group—later redesignated as the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing in October 1989—reached initial operating capability in October 1983.
Even so, the Nighthawk remained highly classified for many years. The program was not officially revealed to the public until 1988, and the aircraft did not make its first formal public appearance until 1990. By then, it had already been in operational service for seven years.
As mentioned earlier, by July 1986, trade magazines and authors had published several articles about the so-called “F-19” stealth fighter, which became one of the most famous fictional aircraft. During the 1980s, model versions of the F-19 were released by four companies—Revell, Monogram, Italeri, and Testors. Each claimed their design was based on photos of a real aircraft supposedly taken near Area 51, but the models looked nothing like the actual aircraft. That likely suited the people involved in the classified program.
On July 11, 1986, Major Ross E. Mulhare, age 35 and serving with the 4450th Tactical Group, departed from the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada and flew his F-117 into California airspace on what would become his final mission. Mulhare, a 1974 Air Force Academy graduate, had told friends and relatives in New Jersey that he flew F-5E fighter jets in simulated combat missions against Tactical Air Command pilots.
Air & Space Forces Magazine reports:
“Shortly before his flight, Mulhare was overheard telling a colleague that he was tired and ‘couldn’t shake it.’ Despite his physical condition, Mulhare took off at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time—such late-night flights were intended to prevent discovery of the airplane’s unique shape—and proceeded westbound into the eastern portion of the San Joaquin Valley. He flew down the eastern side of the valley toward Bakersfield.”
At around 1:45 a.m., roughly 17 miles northeast of Bakersfield, Mulhare’s aircraft entered a steep descent and crashed into a hillside near the edge of Sequoia National Forest, killing him.
The aircraft was so badly damaged that one crash investigator described it as “without exception… the worst crash I have worked.” He further noted that although the airframe showed only limited fire damage, “the structural breakup was almost absolute” and that ” ‘shattered’ may best describe the aircraft after impact.” Because of this, it was often impossible to identify specialized components.
According to Knowledge Stew, the crash sparked a brush fire that burned 150 acres.
The USAF gave only limited details about the incident. In fact, the head of the service’s public affairs office stated that the aircraft had a single crew member and “was definitely not a bomber.” Officials at Nellis Air Force Base also confirmed that Mulhare was not part of the base’s aggressor squadrons, which replicated Soviet air combat tactics for USAF training. An Air Force spokesperson further acknowledged that Mulhare belonged to the 4450th Tactical Group, but said all information about the unit was classified and could not be discussed.
The Kern County sheriff’s office, which had authority over the Bakersfield area, did provide reporters with some additional information from the Air Force. It said that the “whole area has been restricted, including the airspace above the crash site” and that “there will be military aircraft in the area and anyone entering the area will be dealt with appropriately by the Air Force.”
Air & Space Forces Magazine says:
“At the crash site, investigators collected evidence and evaluated the remains of the aircraft for clues to the cause of the tragedy. Then came the task of cleaning the site and leaving no pieces of the highly classified aircraft for scavengers, the media, or others to find. A clean-up team moved out a thousand feet from the last of the recognizable debris and then dug and sifted all the dirt in the area.”
“On Jul. 23, controlled explosive charges were detonated on the hillside to free pieces of the aircraft buried as a result of the crash.”
According to Knowledge Stew, the Air Force reportedly replaced the wreckage of the crashed F-117 with debris from an F-101A Voodoo—a jet that had been retired from Air Force service in 1972 and from Air National Guard service in 1982. The damaged Voodoo had reportedly been stored at the highly secretive Area 51 facility in Nevada for over two decades before being dismantled and scattered at the site. Nearly a month later, the Air Force announced that the area was no longer subject to access restrictions.
The following day, a reporter and photographer from Bakersfield television station KERO-TV were flown by helicopter to the crash site. Expecting the site to have been completely cleared by the Air Force, they were surprised to discover large amounts of debris spread across an area roughly 100 to 150 feet from a dirt helicopter landing pad constructed by the military. They collected three bags of material, which were later shown during the station’s Friday evening news broadcast before being handed over to an Air Force public affairs representative. A spokesperson from Edwards Air Force Base stated that the debris would be analyzed as a precautionary measure, although there were no immediate plans to conduct additional recovery operations at the site.
Photo by U.S. Air Force and RuthAS Own work via Wikipedia
