HISTORY

ssile hit the garage and house on Fourth Street

East, home of J. R. Hingle. One fragment barely

missed certain Lilly Willigham who was visiting

him at that time. 17 year old Larry Kempton was

driving a family car along Palmdale Boulevard

under the close supervision of his mother Bernice. One of the missiles exploded right in front

of their car. The fragments tore the left front tire

and made 17 holes in the cooler, hood and windshield. Miraculously Larry and his mother did

not suffer any injuries.

The damage assessment and search for the

unexploded missiles were launched immediately. Captain Sewell Griggers from the Los

Angeles Sheriff’s Office during his flight in the

helicopter spotted two missiles stuck in the

ground on the empty property in Palmdale. Sheriff’s Office pyrotechnicians promptly detonated

them. The USAF personnel from Oxnard air

base were also deployed to search the stricken

area. As a result, another 13 unexploded missiles were found between Palmdale and Santa

Clarita. Edwards air base pyrotechnicians were

called in to destroy them.

And what was the fate of the protagonist of this

disaster? After Scorpions fired all of their missiles and turned back to their home base as

they were running out of fuel, Hellcat flew over

Palmdale. It was also getting short of fuel and

therefore it started to descend with a coughing

engine until it crashed in the desert 8 miles (13

kilometers) East of Palmdale. It completely disintegrated into pieces. Right before the impact

it broke the electrical wires running along the

unpaved road. Three broken wires were ultimately the only damage it caused on the ground.

Neither the Navy nor the USAF could have possibly predicted that. There was a real threat of

an uncontrolled drone crashing into the densely

populated area causing loss of life. So, they did

all possible to prevent this from happening. That

nothing went as planned on that day was possibly even good luck. During the actual combat

the Scorpions’ failure could have had a much

worse impact.

Preserved red color of Hellcat.

A pile of debris from the crashed Hellcat.

The label is still readable today.

Hellcat crashed into the desert 8 miles (13 kilometers) East of the airport in Palmdale.

Upon the impact its right wing hit the sand, the aircraft somersaulted and completely

disintegrated. Its pieces can still be found there today. In December 2020 Tom Rosquin

visited the crash site and published his photographs on social networks. We obtained his

kind permission to publish them here. Thank you Tom!

INFO Eduard - FEBRUARY 2022

eduard

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