I met the guy that was the pilot of this Buff when this happened(Chuck Fisher)and read his book "High, Low, Jack and the Game"-Boeing Test Pilot. He was deliberately flying it through serious turbulence when the plane's vertical stab broke off. For a few minutes he had no horizontal or vertical control and yelled to his crew to prepare to eject-over the mountains even! An airplane without a vertical stab cannot be controlled. But.........., he managed to find a way-differential adjustment of the 8 throttles and landed it safely. No kidding! He gave his crew the choice to stay with him and the aircraft or eject. They stayed with him and in his book he said he thought they were &%$$ fools. He ordered the guy in the tail gunner seat to bail out with the flight data tapes in his lap so if they crashed, Boeing would at least have the data. Chuck did not think they would make it. What cajones!
