F-100A-20-NA Super Sabre, serial number 53-1659, was sitting on the flight line and needed to be test flown before being turned over to the Air Force and although it was George Franklin Smith, North American production test pilot's day off, Smith was happy to take the flight.
He took from LAX in full afterburner mode and climbed to 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) over the Pacific Ocean to start the test sequence but it was quickly apparent that something was wrong: The flight controls were heavy, and then there was a hydraulic system failure that caused the Super Sabre pitch down into a dive. Smith couldn't pull it out of the dive and the airplane's speed rapidly increased, eventually passing Mach 1.
Smith was unable to regain control of the F-100. He had no choice but to bail out. As he ejected, Smith read the instruments: the Mach meter indicated Mach 1.05-785 miles per hour (1,263 kilometres per hour)-and the altitude was only 6,500 feet (1,981 meters).
The force of the wind blast hitting him as he came out of the cockpit knocked him unconscious. Estimates are that he was subjected to a 40 G deceleration. His parachute opened automatically and he came down approximately one-half mile off Laguna Beach. Fortunately, he hit the water very close to a fishing boat crewed by a former U.S. Navy rescue expert.
The F-100 dived into the Pacific Ocean approximately ¼-mile (0.4 kilometers) offshore between Dana Point and Laguna Beach.
Smith was unconscious for six days and when he awoke, he was blind in both eyes. After four operations and seven months in the hospital, he recovered from his supersonic ejection and returned to flight status.
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