Our Group Flying Safety Council was established as soon as the operation was started. It met weekly throughout the exercise. Under its supervision, vigorous flying safety programs were conducted by all Units and Elements. The program began with flying safety survey of all Units and Elements with continuous follow-up action throughout the operational period. Many unusual features of the flying operation in the Eniwetok Proving Grounds made flying safety a particular important subject. Some of these were: a. Airfield construction at FRED was not completed before we started to operate. Consequently we had to operate while painting and ¢ rading, installation of lights, etc, took place. b. There were roads across the runway at two points. C. The parking and taxi areas were cramped. d. The many diverse type of aircraft operating off the single runway ] required the coordination of several different types of traffic patterns. e. SA-16's landed at lagoons where in some cases the markings and buoys were marginal. f. There were many flights in the area of nuclear detonations. In addition to the four accidents which we experienced, many incidents occurred which could have led to accidents. a. Two examples are: A B-57D aircraft experienced failure of the nose gear hydraulic actuator. The runway was foamed and the aircraft landed in the foam. The nose gear collapsed with only slight damage to the aircraft. It was later discovered that many of the nose gear actuators on our aircraft were defective. The aircraft were grounded until the actuators could be tested and all the defective ones replaced. b. A life raft inflated and ejected from A WB-50 in flight. It struck the left horizontal stablizer and did such damage as to reduce the normal control 28 ! £0 baED/DOE * * CANE Re od &