30 November 1957 – Capt Benny Lacombe is killed when he unsuccessfully attempts to bail out of Lockheed U-2A, 56-6704, Article 371, 13 miles SE of Laughlin AFB. Ejection seats had not yet been fitted to U-2s at this point. The history of the U-2 program is fraught with fatalities and crashes. “CIA pilots Wilburn S.
After serving in the USAF, Keith Balcom worked as a flight engineer for TransWorld Airlines out of NY where he flew the Boeing 707 and 727 from 1968-1970. From 1970-1973, Balcom was a Sky Marshal for the U.S. Treasury Department out of NY for International flights. In 1974 he became a project engineer and flight test operations engineer at Boeing in Seattle, WA until 1976, when he became the Flight Engineer for the Boeing 727 with TransWorld Airlines again out of NY.
Keith went on to work as an Air Safety Engineer for the Airline Pilots Association out of Washington, DC from 1981-1983. From 1983 until 16 years later, Balcom was Flight Engineer (Boeing 727), then First Officer & Captain (Boeing 737) with Piedmont/US Airways out of Norfolk, VA, and Baltimore, MD.
Captain Keith Balcom retired from US Airways on November 1, 1999.
