On October 12, 1974, an Air Force C-130 Typhoon Chaser plane, with its six man crew, was lost during reconnaissance of Typhoon Bess while over the South China Sea. This was the last such reconnaissance flight to go down in a tropical cyclone and the only C-130 to suffer such a fate.
By most measures Bess was an otherwise unremarkable storm. Bess had formed east of the Philippines some six days before the fatal mission. It moved west-northwestward and slowly gathered strength before striking the archipelago on Oct. 10th as a minimal typhoon. It still brought heavy rains across Luzon and surrounding islands. Mudslides and flash floods claimed 26 lives with 3 others missing. Bess then moved over the South China Sea and began to regain strength. It was during a regular reconnaissance mission the following day that the aircraft of the Air Force’s 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flying out of Clark AFB in the Philippines went down with no distress signal sent. Search and rescue missions were begun and eventually involved five aircraft and the USS White Plains. Only debris and no survivors were found. Bess continued westward, weakening before making landfall on Hainan Island and later North Vietnam with little damage.
The crew of Swan 38 were
Capt Edward R. Bushnell
1Lt Gary W. Crass
1Lt Michael P. O’Brien
1Lt Timothy J. Hoffman
Tech Sgt Kenneth G. Suhr
Sgt Detlef W. Ringler