Lt. Gerald L. Hall

Aircraft Crash 02 April 1970 at Richards-Gebaur USAF Base in MO.

Comments by Gary Verver on the incident:
China Lake TA-4F 153503 was on a cross country flight and on final to a Midwest USAF base when one of the Blivot doors came open, the Blivot collapsed and jammed the ailerons causing an unrecoverable low altitude roll (sounds a bit odd to me as I recall the tanks being under the flaps). The back-seater ejected horizontally and survived and the pilot ejected into the ground.
I'm told by the guys that were at China Lake in 1970 that the term referred to a 300 gal drop tank that had been "cleaned out" and had access panels cut into the sides and access doors installed. They were used as luggage etc. containers on RON flights. Also told that the use of Blivots was banned by the Navy after this accident. Not sure if Blivot was a local term or not.