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Walthall and Myers realized they were too close to #145. Walthall overreacted by rotating his aircraft to starboard rather than nosing down, a move that caused contact between the two aircraft. Aboard #145, LT Scully saw #909's port wing tip swing up between engines #3 and #4 on the starboard side. The shaft of the #4 propeller broke when it was struck by 909’s wingtip and went flying off into space. The collision broke the wing's spare, which lead to the wing tip breaking away between engines #3 and 4. The wing tip fluttered toward #942 requiring LT Dale to maneuver his ship to avoid colliding with the debris. Dale continued to climb to avoid the two bombers ahead of him. Walthall’s ship was still flight worthy and he attempted to regain the formation. #145 was now flying on three engines and was missing a significant portion of its starboard wing. The aircraft had unbalanced lift and engine torque and it immediately rotated right, and began to cross the bomber stream headed back toward Walthall. Walthall put his aircraft into a shallow dive to avoid #145 and hopefully regain the formation. Harper pushed his throttles forward and and struggled to keep his ship under control. Scully, however, felt that Harper was making a mistake and retarded the throttles. Both pilots were not only fighting to keep the ship under their control, but they were now fighting each other. As the two pilots fought, #145 began to settle. #909 was almost clear as SGT Kazmer Rachak watched in horror as #145 came down over their starboard wing, with their tail section coming down between #3 and #4 engines. The propellers of #909 cut into the empanage of #145 between the waist and tail guns. The left wing was coming down on the top turret. SGT Rachak ducked in anticipation of the impact, which then knocked him to the flight deck. The top turret dome crumpled, shattering the plexiglas. The engines continued to run, but the blades were now damaged. The tail of #145 held tight in spite of the deep gashes that threatened to cause the ship to come apart. Walthall put his ship into a dive to clear the point of impact. In all the commotion and his ship “going down”, SGT Rachak heard a noise he thought was the bell notifying the crew to bail out. SGT Rachak immediately made his way to the forward hatch with the intent of bailing out, fearing that the ship was doomed. As he passed by the nose compartment where the bombardier and navigator sat, he waved to them to bail out, too. LT Ingerson urged the sergeant out, since he was already in the escape trunk. Ingerson saw Rachak leave, but hesitated fearing he may be too low to bail out. In the time it took him to do decide his next move, Walthall and Myers recovered their aircraft and made a turn in hopes of returning to England. By this time, the ship was now approaching Quelkhorn when Ingerson left the aircraft. He had a good chute, but was to far away to see Rachak in his. It is not known if LT Graham, the crew’s bombardier, heard the exchange between Rachak and Ingerson, or if the ship was back under control before he could bail out; regardless, he remained aboard. As SGT Rachak prepared to leave the ship, he realized his parachute was on upside down. Rather than waste time turning it around, he simply decided he could open his chute with his left hand just as easily and bailed. |