On 8/28/79, two F-4Ds #66-7594 and #66-7617 collided about fifty miles north of Las Vegas scattering wreckage over a large area. They were part of a flight of three F-4Ds with the 474th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada participating in an Air Combat Maneuvers (ACM) flight. The flight proceeded to Elgin ATCAA and set up for a tactical intercept. The first intercept and ACM engagement were completed without incident. During the second engagement, 66-7594 and 66-7617 were maneuvering to attack the third F-4D when they collided. The crew of one of the F-4Ds, pilot Capt. Robert W. Newman and WSO Capt. Patrick Y. Nakagawa were able to eject safely, but the crew of the second F-4D, pilot Capt. Ronald L. Diehl and WSO Capt. Ray H. Littge ejected but were fatally injured upon ground impact.

Driving on I-15, approaching the Nevada border. This is my second trip to this F-4 crash site. The first visit was on 12/14/12, but due to the widely scattered wreckage, I knew that I missed finding some of it. Finally got around to completing the search.

I drove up the day before and camped here. It rained most of the night, but the weather looks better now. It's a short drive from here to where I'll start the hike.

Found this used smoke grenade next to the road where I parked for the hike.

This piece of wreckage was less than 100 feet from the road and nowhere near the main debris field. Not sure how it got there.

This is the first large piece I came upon. The tubes are fuel lines that are attached to the top of what remains of one of the six fuselage fuel cells.

More wreckage. Being that this was a mid-air, the wreckage was scattered over a very large area.

Another view of one of the pieces. It's one of the six large doors that allow access to engine bay that are on the bottom side of the fuselage. It has fire detection wire on it.

Piece of the keel that runs down the center between the engines. An engine mount can be seen. Like a lot of widely scattered wreckage at this site, it sits alone with no other wreckage in sight.

Looking down into one of the ravines, I could see pieces of an engine.

I was finding a lot of parts from the engine scattered on the slope while hiking down into the ravine. This looks like a pump.

Parts from the engine's accessory section.

This is from the engine air intake.

The high pressure compressor section from one of the General Electric J79-GE-15 engines that powered the F-4Ds.

Nearby was the low pressure compressor section.

The other side has the linkage for the variable stator vanes.

The other half of the stator vane case was nearby.

An engine oil tank was nearby. Each engine has one of these.

Continuing the search, I came upon this turbine disc assembly that was stuck in the ground.

Close up view showing how the blades are attached on one of the discs.

One of the afterburner combustion chambers.

One of the two main impact areas at the site.

This is the largest piece in this area, it's from the fuselage center section. Almost all of the aluminum skin has melted away leaving the titanium engine bay liner.

A little bit of the aluminum skin remains on this section.

This view is looking in from the front, the center keel that runs between the engines can be seen. Also the ram air turbine (RAT) can been seen in the upper right in the extended position.

Closer view of the RAT. This would be located above the left engine bay and is pneumatically deployed as a AC generator for in flight emergencies involving loss of electrical power.

I think that this is one of the ejection seat catapults. There were two of these in this area.

The remains of one of the two environmental conditioning system units. These would have been mounted on each side under the front cockpit. One was used to regulate cockpit temperature while the other to cool the radar set and pressurize the fuel tanks.

Close up of some of the items in the pile. I've could have spent a couple of hours just checking out this area, but there was still a lot of stuff to find scattered over a very large area and just didn't have the time.

Ducting with flexible joints. Looks like this might be the compressor bleed air manifold from one of the engines.

Group of electrical equipment.

Not sure what this was used for, but it looks like some type of control stick. Was thinking that it might be the radar antenna hand control stick, but it doesn't match any of the photos I found.

Gauge on this part is mark with OXYGEN SUPPLY PRESSURE. It's the oxygen control panel from the rear cockpit.

Also from the rear cockpit is the control panel for the weapons release computer.

This looks like part of the IFF control panel. What I found interesting was the three light bulbs that collapsed due to the vacuum inside them when the glass was soften by the heat from the post crash fire.

Nearby was the second environmental conditioning system unit. This one was in fairly good condition having been spared from the post crash fire.

A windscreen, the round end is the top.

Continuing the search, I came upon these pieces from a canopy. Looks like one of the four canopies landed here after the crews ejected, no sign of the frame.

My boot in the bottom of the photo shows the size of the largest piece.

Me with the radome from one of the Phantoms.

Close up of the radome shows the fiberglass delaminating. Surprising that it's still together after more than 33 years.

Found a lot of the radar's electrical equipment scattered nearby.

More from the radar.

More of the radar's electrical equipment.

Close up of the magnetron on the same piece of equipment. It's the source of the RF energy routed to the antenna.

Tire and wheel from one of the main landing gears.

Close by was the strut from a main gear.

And the upper section of the main gear. The three pieces look like they were from the same landing gear.