Tom was one of our T-bird pilots. He was flying a target mission out over the Pacific. He was on his way back to Fresno, and while still off the coast west of Vandenburg AFB ATC lost his transponder. The subsequent investigation thought that the probable cause of the crash was that the "Green Apple" that was to manually inflate the life raft that was under of the seat cushion got caught on something, and inflated. A member of the Board went out to the ramp, and in one of our T-33s, he manually inflated the raft with the canopy down. Once with no preparation and once with his survival knife open and ready. Both attemps resulted in him being rapidly, and forcibly pushed forward against the stick, pushing it forward. With all of the pressure, he couldn't breath and had to be rapidly pulled out of the cockpit. Even with his knife in hand, he was unable to deflate the raft. I believe that this was what the Board thought was the most likely cause of the accident.

Tom Fishburn Article #1