Foge also tried to stay with the leader.  But soon his plane was approaching the maximum allowable speed for the Skyraider.  As he tried to pull out of the dive, his plane began to shudder and buffet from the high speed.  He experienced a high speed stall and soon began to "Gray out"

 A "gray out" happens to a pilot when centrifugal force, or gravity begins to drain  the blood from his head due to a high positive "G" maneuver, such as pulling out of a dive too quickly.  Today's modern jet pilots wear a special flight suit that prevent the "gray out".  If the condition is left uncorrected, it can progress to a "black out" and total unconsciousness.  An unconscious pilot would mean an out of control airplane.

 At about 25,000 feet, Foge was finally able to get his airplane back under control and  into level flight  Then he saw Black's plane pull out of the first half of a split "S". It  appeared that Black had also recovered and was going back into level flight.  But the radio call to Black went unanswered.

 Meanwhile, Lt. Crowser was also trying to keep up with Black's plane.  He followed him down until his speed approached the red line.  Then he tried to pull out.  Crowser also experienced a gray out, but recovered his senses, and control of the airplane, at about 26,000 feet.  His radio call to Black also went unanswered.  At that moment, the men saw Black's Skyraider roll inverted  and go into a steep dive once more.  None of the men ever saw Black's plane again.

 On the ground, Mr. Paul Drake heard the high pitched whine of an airplane engine.  "It sounded as if it were running at full power." he said in an interview shortly after the crash.  "I thought the pilot  was stunting up there."

 (Note: Mr. Drake was interviewed again in 1997, at the age of 87, by wreck chaser Jim Rowan who was attempting to relocate the crash site.)

 Mr. Drake watched the aircraft through his binoculars as it dove vertically straight into the ground at more than 450mph.  "There was a huge explosion." he said. "And a giant ball of fire rose up from the spot."  Drake was stunned by what he had just witnessed.  He quickly scanned the sky looking  for a parachute, but saw none.  He then looked at his watch and made a note of the time.  It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

 The crash report stated that Black's plane came down at a 90 degree angle to the terrain, at a point about five miles west of the small town of Stevenson.  The area is on the edge of a dry slough, and only two hundred yards west of the San Joaquin River.  The impact was so violent that it drove the massive radial engine ten feet into the soft soil.   And so destructive, that only a small portion of Lt. Black's body was ever recovered.

 It is likely that the engine and propeller are still buried in that hole which measured about six  feet deep and about ten feet wide.  The wreckage was scattered as far as three hundred yards from the point of impact.  The blast from the crash reportedly rattled windows in the ranch houses for miles around.

 Back in the sky above, the remaining three Skyraiders were not aware of Lt. Black's fate.  They only knew that he had disappeared from  view, and was not answering their repeated radio calls.  They had recovered from the extreme maneuver at about 25,000 feet and had joined together. When they failed to contact the flight leader on the radio, they began a descent while flying in a wide circle over the area where he was last seen.

 None of the remaining three pilots saw the smoke rising up from the valley floor where Black's plane had crashed.  Unsure of what to do, the men flew around the area for about thirty minutes before setting a course back to Moffett Field.  As they approached the field, they reported what had happened by radio.

 By the time they had arrived back at Moffett, the accident had been report to the Sheriff's office, who in turn reported it to the Navy at Crows Landing.  Officials there sent out a small search plane piloted by a  LCDR Whited and Lt. Pingrey, the VA-195 Operations Officer onboard to investigate.  Lt. Black had been assigned to VA-195 at Moffett Field.

 The two officers  in the small observation type aircraft had no trouble finding the accident site.  All they had to do, was to look for the billowing black smoke rising from the slough by the river.  At 5:15pm, they landed the small plane on the flat area near the roaring fire that was once Lt. Black's Skyraider.  The intense fire was still burning an hour and fifteen minute after the crash.

 By the time the small plane landed, Mr. Drake and several other witnesses had gathered at the scene to see if they could be of some assistance.  But they were instructed by the two Navy  Officers to leave the area.  They complied with the order, but not before giving their names and a statement of what they saw.

 Due to the impending darkness, and the fact that the fire was still raging in the impact crater, the Navy officers also departed the area soon after.  There was noting more anyone could do, and there was certainly nothing left to salvage from the Skyraider.

 The next day the investigation began into the cause of the accident.  But investigators were hindered by the fact that there was no body to autopsy, and no recognizable wreckage left to examine.   The only possible answer was that Lt. Black's oxygen system had failed at high altitude, and the lack of oxygen rendering him unconscious. Then the violent maneuvers of his out of control aircraft kept him  in the blacked out condition.  The resulting power dive from 29,000
feet, ended with the horrific explosion as the AD augured into the soft  soil on the west bank of the San Joaquin River.

 In the following days, what little wreckage remained at the site, was gathered up and transferred to the Alameda Naval Air Station for proper disposal.  Lt. Black was  thirty-two years old and had left behind a wife and three very young children.  The youngest was just five months old at the time.

 Soon, the events of that terrible day were lost in time.  It is not likely that anyone still living in the area, remembers that day in 1953, when Lt. Black and his Skyraider plunged 29,000 feet to total destruction near the banks of the San Joaquin River in western Merced County.