List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft, 1950-1999

This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. For more exhaustive lists, see the Aircraft Crash Record Office or the Air Safety Network.

See also: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft, pre-1950

See also: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft, 2000 -

1950

• 13 February - A U.S. Air Force B-36B-15-CF, 44-92075, in transit from Eielson AFB, Alaska to Carswell AFB, Texas, loses three of six engines, suffers icing. To lighten aircraft crew jettisons Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing over the Pacific Ocean from 8,000 feet. High explosives detonate on contact, large shockwave seen, 17 crew later bails out safely over Princess Royal Island, but five (the first to depart the bomber) are not recovered and are assumed to have come down in water and drowned. Aircraft flies 210 miles with no crew, impacting in the Skeena Mountains at 6,000 feet, east of Stewart, British Columbia. Wreckage found in September 1953. See also 1950 British Columbia B-36 crash.
• 15 February - de Havilland DH 108, VW120, flown by RAE's OC, Squadron Leader J.S.R. Muller-Rowland, enters steep dive from 27,000 feet (8230 meters), breaking up around 10,000 feet (3048 meters) with fatal result. Wreckage comes down at Birkhill, near Bletchley.
• 22 February - On its 102nd flight, the USAF XF-89, 46-678, crashed near Hawthorne, California during a high-speed low pass for Air Force officials. Right horizontal stabilizer peeled off, aircraft disintegrated, throwing pilot Charles Tucker clear, parachuted safely, but flight engineer Arthur Turton died in mishap. Cause was found to be high-frequency, low-amplitude flutter of both the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.
• 5 April - Martin JRM-3 Mars flying boat, BuNo 76822, c/n 9266, "Marshall Mars", destroyed by fire near Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands - force landed in Keehi Lagoon, Oahu with engine fire. Crew were rescued after which aircraft exploded.
• 11 April - A USAF B-29 on a routine flight crashes into mountain three minutes after take-off from Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, killing 13 crew. One fully-assembled bomb casing (probably a Mark 4 nuclear bomb) on board is completely shattered when triggers explode. A fuel capsule, carried separately, is recovered.
• 1 May - Third and final de Havilland DH 108, TG283, crash near Hartley Wintney, Hants, during stall tests, kills replacement RAE OC, Squadron Leader George E.C. Genders. Aircraft entered uncontrollable spin, pilot bails out, parachute fails.
• 13 June - RAF Cierva Air Horse helicopter, VZ724, breaks up in flight and crashes, killing all three crew, Squadron Leader F.J. "Jeep" Cable, test pilot Alan Marsh and flight test engineer J. Unsworth.
• 13 July - A USAF B-50D-110-BO, 49-267, of the 97th Bomb Wing out of Biggs AFB, Texas, carrying a nuclear weapon bomb casing (but no fuel capsule), stalls at 7,000 feet at about 1454 hrs. EST, crashes between Lebanon, Ohio and Mason, Ohio, killing four officers and twelve airmen. No radio communication was received before the crash, and although all crew wore parachutes, none bailed out. HE in bomb casing explodes on impact leaving crater 200X25 feet, explosion heard for 25 miles. One account states that the weather was clear, but Joe Baugher reports that bomber was in a storm system.
• 5 August - A USAF B-29 Superfortress carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb, suffers two runaway propellers, as well as landing gear problems on takeoff at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, Fairfield, California, USA. Attempts emergency landing, crashes. The nuclear bomb's high-explosive trigger detonates, causing a huge chain-reaction explosion that kills 19 aboard the plane and on the ground, including mission commander Brig. Gen. Robert F. Travis; the airfield is later renamed Travis Air Force Base in his honor. The Air Force official explanation was that the Superfortress was carrying ten to twelve conventional 500 pound bombs.
• 10 November - A USAF B-50 on a routine weapons ferrying flight between Goose Bay, Labrador and its home base at Davis-Monthan AFB, New Mexico, loses two of four engines. To maintain altitude it jettisons empty Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing just before 1600 hrs. at 10,500 feet above the St. Lawrence River near the town of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, about 90 miles NE of Quebec, Canada. HE in the casing observed detonating upon impact in the middle of the twelve-mile-wide river, blast felt for 25 miles. Official Air Force explanation at the time is that the Superfortress released three conventional 500-pound HE bombs.

1951

US Navy personnel aboard aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) flee as F2H-2 Banshee strikes parked aircraft and explodes; 16 September 1951.

• 14 March - RAF Coastal Command Avro Lancaster GR.3, TX264, 'BS-D', of 120 Squadron Kinloss, off-course in high winds and heavy overcast during a night-time navigation exercise between the Faroes and Rockall, crashes into Beinn Eighe's Triple Buttress at ~0200 hrs., just 15 feet below the top of the 2,850 foot westernmost gully of the buttress known as Coire Mhic Fhercair in the Scottish Highlands, killing all eight crew. Wreck not found until 17 March, crew remains not recovered until 30 March. Due to remoteness of the crashsite the wreckage is still there.
• 23 March - A United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster II, 49-244, c.n. 43173, of the 2nd Strategic Support Squadron, missing over the Atlantic Ocean; wreckage found near Ireland. 53 died, including Gen. Paul Cullen and his command staff.
• 13 June - RAF English Electric Canberra B.1, VN850, bailed to Rolls-Royce for Avon engine tests. Crashed on approach to Hucknall with engine fire, coming down just outside field perimeter, killing Rolls-Royce test pilot R.B. Leach. This was the first loss of a Canberra.
• 23 June - Second Avro CF-100 Mk.1, 19102, 'FB-K',crashes on the day it is handed over to the RCAF.
• 16 September - A damaged F2H-2 Banshee jet fighter, BuNo 124968, of VF-172, returning to the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) misses the recovery net and crashes into several planes parked on the ship's deck, killing 7 people and destroying 4 aircraft. This crash led the USN to equip all future carriers with angled flight decks for safer airplane recovery.

1952

• 12 January - Prototype RAF Vickers Valiant, WB210, catches fire during in-flight relight trials, crew bails out but co-pilot, Squadron Leader Foster, is killed when his ejection seat strikes tail.
• 3 April - A United States Air Force B-29 Superfortress crashes at night. Suspected reason - Fuel line issues. Unknown number of fatalities. Majority of the crew bail out and land in farmers field 8 miles N/5.5 miles W of Onaga, Kansas, USA.
• 4 April - A United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster II collides in midair with a C-47 Skytrain over Mobile, Alabama, USA; 15 die.
• 8 July - Israeli IAF/DF Mosquito T.3, 2119, RAF serial unknown, as Capt. Daniel Shapira demonstrates a take-off to Lt. Ze'ev Tavor it goes badly, airframe ending up in the weeds. Despite this, both pilots eventually become test pilots. This was the first Israeli loss of the type.
• 29 August - Boulton Paul P.120, VT951, first flown 6 August 1952, crashes this date on Salisbury Plain, Wilts, Great Britain after control failure. Pilot A.E. "Ben" Gunn ejects safely. Airframe had accumulated only ~eleven hours flying time. This is the first recorded loss of a delta-wing-design airframe.
• 1 September - Several tornados sweep across Carswell AFB, Texas destroying B-36B-10-CF, 44-92051, and damaging 82 others of the 7th and 11th Bomb Wings, including ten at the Convair plant on the other side of the Fort Worth base. Gen. Curtis LeMay is forced to remove the 19th Air Division from the war plan, and the base went on an 84-hour work week until repairs were made. 26 B-36s were returned to Convair for repairs, and the last aircraft deemed repairable was airborne again on 11 May 1953.
• 6 September - Prototype de Havilland DH 110, WG236, flown by John Derry and Anthony Richards disintegrates at the Farnborough Air Show during pull out from high speed dive, killing Derry and Richards, debris, including engines, falls among crowd killing 29 spectators.
• 22 November or 23 November - A United States Air Force C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0107, on approach to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, USA crashes into a remote glacier, killing all 52 aboard.
• 20 December - A United States Air Force C-124A Globemaster II, 50-100, c/n 43238, crashed on takeoff from Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Washington, USA. 125 on board, 28 survivors. This was the highest confirmed death toll of any disaster in aviation history at the time.

1953

• 31 January - A USAF F-86F Sabre crashes in bad weather while on final approach to Truax Field, Wisconsin, killing the pilot, Major Hampton E.Boggs a former Korean War and World War II ace with the 459th Fighter Squadron.
• 15 May - An errant USAF F-84 Thunderjet collides with 2 USAF C-119 Flying Boxcars flying in formation near Weinheim, Germany, sending all 3 planes down in flames. C-119C-70-FA, 51-8235, c/n 10783, struck by the fighter, which then struck C-119C-70-FA, 51-8241, c/n 10789, 3 Flying Boxcar crew KWF, 3 injured. F-84 pilot parachutes to safety.
• 18 June - A United States Air Force C-124A Globemaster II, 51-137, crashes at Kodaira, Japan after engine failure on take-off at Tachikawa Air Force Base, Tokyo, Japan. 129 die, making this the deadliest recorded disaster in aviation history at the time.
• 6 August - Israeli IDF/AF Mosquito FB.6 2113, ex-RAF PZ183, disappeared in flight over the Mediterranean, Lt. Uriel Ashel and 2nd Lt. Oded Shatil missing.
• 17 November - USAF C-119F-KM, 51-8163, c/n 166, crashed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during a joint airborne operation. One of 12 C-119s on a troop drop, it lost an engine, dropped out of formation, hit and killed ten troopers in their chutes that had been dropped from other aircraft, that in addition to 4 crew members and one medical officer that went down with the plane.
• 17 December - A USAF B-29 Superfortress making an emergency landing at Andersen AFB, Guam, failed to reach the runway and crashed into an officers housing area at the base, demolishing ten homes and damaging three more. Nine of sixteen crew were killed, as were seven on the ground - an officer, his wife, and five children.

1954

• 8 April - A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collided with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.
• 30 March - A C-119 Flying Boxcar careens into a US Army mess hall and explodes after crash-landing in a parade field at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, USA, killing 5 aboard the plane and 2 inside the building.
• 12 October - USAF F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre, 52-5764, c.n. 192-9, crashes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, killing North American test-pilot Lt. George Welch, a veteran of the Japanese Navy attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 and a former fighter-pilot with the 80th Fighter Squadron.
• 4 November - Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, BuNo 135762, disintegrated in mid-air over San Diego Bay, California, during a demonstration for Navy officials and the press, killing Convair test pilot, Charles E. Richbourg.

1955

• 22 March - A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1, BuNo 131612, c/n 43715, of VR-3, assigned to MATS, hits a cliff on Pali Kea Peak in the Waianae Range, 15 miles NW of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, United States of America, at 0203 hrs., killing 57 passengers and nine crew, making this the worst heavier-than-air disaster in US Navy history.
• 13 May - On seventh and final flight of Northrop N-69A test vehicle for the XSM-62 Snark, only two of which were successful, mission was cut short when the missile collided with its T-33A photo plane.
• 11 August - Two United States Air Force C-119s of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron collided near Stuttgart, Germany shortly after takeoff from Stuttgart Army Airfield near Echterdingen. In all, 66 died, 44 on one Flying Boxcar, and 22 on the other. Troops aboard were of the Army's 499th Engineering Battalion.
• 6 October - McDonnell company pilot George Mills bails out of F3H-1N Demon near St. Louis, Missouri after what appears to be a massive systems failure, including the J40 engine. Instead of crashing, fighter circles over two states for more than an hour sans canopy, ejection seat and pilot. It eventually impacts in cornfield near Monticello, Iowa, 250 miles from ejection.

1956

• 10 January - The most notorious incident of aircraft pitch-up known as the "Sabre dance" was the loss of F-100C-20-NA Super Sabre 54-1907 during an attempted emergency landing at Edwards AFB, California which was caught by film cameras set up for an unrelated test. The pilot fought to retain control as he rode the edge of the flight envelope, but fell off on one wing, hit the ground, and exploded with fatal results. These scenes were inserted in the movie The Hunters, starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner.
• 17 February - Douglas R5D-2 Skymaster, BuNo 39116, on flight from MCAS El Toro, California to NAS Alameda, in low overcast and drizzle, strikes Sunol Ridge on ranch ~3.5 miles N of Niles, California at 1345 hrs. Aircraft broke up and burned, killing 35, all but one of them Marines.
• 10 March - One of four U.S. Air Force B-47Es out of MacDill AFB, Florida, misses tanker meet over the Mediterranean. Extensive search never turns up plane, crew, or two 210DE nuclear capsules.
• 15 May - A RCAF Avro CF-100 Canuck Mk. IVB, 18367, of 445 Squadron, out of CFB Uplands, falling from 33,000 feet crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent of the Grey Nuns of the Cross in Orleans, Ontario, Canada at roughly 2300 hrs. (reports vary). 15 people were killed; both crewmen of the aircraft, pilot William J. Schmidt, and navigator Kenneth D. Thomas, a priest, 11 nuns and one other woman.
• 5 June - A USAF Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet of the 18th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron armed with 104 live rockets, strikes an automobile during an aborted take-off at Wold-Chamberlain Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, killing 3 of the 5 occupants of the vehicle; both F-89 crew members survive.
• 9 June - A Grumman F9F-4 Panther fighter jet of VMF-213, flown by a USMC Reserve pilot crashes into a row of houses near Wold-Chamberlain Field, striking the home at 5820 46th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. In addition to killing the pilot, Maj. George Armstrong, the crash kills 5 and injures 12 on the ground, most of whom are young children. This is the second time in 5 days that a military jet operating from this airport crashes and kills multiple civilians on the ground.
• 27 July - A U.S. Air Force B-47 of the 307th Bomb Wing from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, crashes while making touch-and-goes at RAF Lakenheath, skidding off runway and into nuclear weapons storage igloo holding three Mark 6 nuclear bombs, burns. No weapons in the facility go off and all are later repaired. Stratojet was unarmed.
• 27 September - Test pilot Mel Apt is killed on the 20th flight of the Bell X-2, 46-674, out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, when he attempts a turn at Mach 3.2 (nearly 2,100 mph), and the airframe goes into a vicious case of inertia coupling. Apt jettisons the escape capsule but runs out of height before he can bail out of the falling nose section.

• 1 October - The RAF's first Avro Vulcan B 1, XA897, which completed a fly-the-flag mission to New Zealand in September, approaches Heathrow in bad weather on GCA approach, crashing short of the runway. Two pilots eject, but four crew do not have ejection seats and are killed. Aircraft Captain Squadron Leader "Podge" Howard and co-pilot Air Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst survive. Signal delays in the primitive Ground-Controlled Approach system of the time may have let the aircraft descend too low without being warned. Undercarriage damaged in contact short of runway with control lost during attempted go-around. Pathe News report
• 10 October - A United States Air Force C-118 lost at sea about 150 miles north of the Azores. 59 died.
• 5 December: An XSM-62 Snark, 53-8172, N-69D test model, fitted with new 24 hour stellar inertial guidance system, launches from Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida, wanders off-course, ignores destruct command, disappears over Brazil. It is found by a farmer in January 1983.
• 31 December - A United States Air Force C-121C-LO, 54-165, c/n 1049F-4184, crashed on approach to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia while flying UN troops into the Suez Canal zone. It was also carrying Hungarian refugees back to Charleston AFB, South Carolina. 12 of 38 onboard killed

1957

• 31 January - Mid-air collision between Douglas Aircraft Company non-commercial test flight of DC-7B airliner, N8210H, out of Santa Monica Municipal Airport (intended customer - Continental Airlines), struck by Northrop F-89J Scorpion, 52-1870A, out of Palmdale, California with companion "target" F-89J, 53-2516A too far ahead to witness incident, all at 25,000 feet. Scorpion, coming out of 90-degree turn, struck the DC-7B almost head-on at 1118 hrs., ~1-2 miles NE of the Hansen Dam spillway, severing transport's outer port wing. The aircraft broke up, 500 feet-1,000 feet above the ground, and seconds later the wreckage impacted in the courtyard of the Pacoima Congregational Church near the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Terra Bella Street, near Sunland, California, killing all four crew. Airliner impacted across the street from Pacoima Junior High School - debris killed three students and injured some 74 others. Following collision, Curtiss Adams, radarman aboard the e.b. F-89J, ejected, despite incurring serious burns, and parachuted, landing in Burbank. Pilot Roland E. Owen died in the burning fighter which impacted into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains. All four Scorpion crew were Northrop employees. Co-pilot on the DC-7, veteran flier Archie R. Twitchell, 50, enjoyed a secondary career as an actor between flying stints and appeared in over 100 films, including Union Pacific, I Wanted Wings, Among the Living, Out of the Past, Fort Apache, I Shot Billy The Kid and Sunset Boulevard, among others. The other DC-7B crew were pilot William G. Carr, 36; flight engineer Waldo B. Adams, 42; and radio operator Roy T. Nakazawa, 28. Collision was blamed on pilot error: Failure of both aircraft crews to exercise proper “see and avoid” procedures regarding other aircraft while operating under visual flight rules (VFR). The catastrophe prompted the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to set restrictions on all aircraft test flights, both military and civilian, requiring that they be made over open water or specifically approved sparsely populated areas.
• 17 March - The official plane of the President of the Philippines, a Philippine Air Force C-47 named "Mt. Pinatubo", crashes on the slopes of Mount Manunggal, Cebu, Philippines, killing Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others. The crash is blamed on metal fatigue; one journalist on board survives. See also 1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash.
• 21 March or 22 March - A United States Air Force C-97C-35-BO, 50-702, c/n 16246, lost at sea over Pacific Ocean near Japan without trace. 67 died. (Joe Baugher lists fatalities as 70.)
• 22 May -A U.S. Air Force B-36J-5-CF, 52-2816, (c/n 372), ferrying a Mark 17 nuclear bomb from Biggs AFB, Texas to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, accidentally drops it through closed bomb doors, impacting 4.5 miles south of Kirtland tower. High explosives detonate creating crater 25X12 feet, but no fuel capsule fitted, no injuries.
• 31 May - A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126313, fighter jet spirals out of control and crashes, killing its pilot, after its right wing breaks in half during a high-speed flyby at naval air station HMCS Shearwater, Nova Scotia, Canada. The crash is attributed to improperly manufactured fittings in the folding wing mechanism, and most RCN and US Navy Banshees are grounded until improved fittings can be installed.
• 12 December – A U.S. Air Force B-52D-75-BO, 56-0597, crashes on takeoff at Fairchild AFB near Spokane, Washington. All crew members are killed except the tail gunner. The incident is caused by trim motors that were hooked up backwards. The aircraft climbed straight up, stalled, fell over backwards and nosed straight down.

1958

• 31 January - During simulated Strategic take-off from overseas base, a USAF B-47 suffers failure of left-rear landing gear, tail strikes ground, rupturing fuel tank. Aircraft burns. Fortunately, nuclear weapon on board, in strike configuration, does not detonate.
• 1 February – A USAF Douglas C-118A Liftmaster military transport, 53-3277, c/n 44648, of the 1611th ATW, and a U.S. Navy P2V-5F Neptune patrol bomber, BuNo 127723, collided over Norwalk (a suburb of Los Angeles), California at night. 47 servicemen were killed as well as a 23-year-old civilian woman on the ground who was hit by falling debris. Two crew on P2V-5F survive. A plaque commemorating the disaster was erected by the American Legion in 1961 at the location of the accident, the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Pioneer Boulevard.
• 5 February - A USAF B-47E-50-BW, 51-2349, of the 19th Bomb Wing out of Homestead AFB, Florida has ~0200 hrs. mid-air collision with USAF F-86L Sabre on simulated combat mission near Sylvania, Georgia, jettisons Mark 15, Mod 0 nuclear bomb training weapon casing from 7,200 feet over Wassaw Sound off Tybee Beach, Georgia. Stratojet recovers to Hunter AFB, Georgia, bomb is still missing. The Pentagon disputes reports that the plutonium trigger WAS on the weapon. See also Tybee Bomb. The B-47 was subsequently scrapped. All crew of both aircraft survive uninjured.
• 11 March - A USAF B-47E from Hunter AFB, Georgia, jettisons nuclear weapons casing from 15,000 feet over rural section of Florence, South Carolina, high-explosives detonate on impact causing property damage, several civilian injuries. No fuel capsule installed on bomb.
• 27 March - A USAF C-124C Globemaster II, 52-0981, collides in midair with a USAF C-119C-17-FA Flying Boxcar, 49-0195, c/n 10432, over Bridgeport, Texas, USA, killing all 15 on the Globemaster and all three on the Flying Boxcar.
• 21 April - A United States Air Force North American F-100F Super Sabre, 56-3755 collided in mid-air with a United Airlines Douglas DC-7, registered N6328C operating flight United 736, at 21,000ft near Arden, Nevada, two F-100 crew died and all 46 on board the DC-7.
• 8 May - An Indian Air Force de Havilland Vampire crashed into the Delhi Flying Club hangar at Safdar Jung Airport, Delhi while attempting an emergency landing following an in-flight fire. Both Vampire crew died and four engineers working in the hangar and 11 aircraft were destroyed.
• 20 May - A United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 53-5966 operated by the Maryland Air National Guard collided in mid-air with a Capital Airlines Vickers Viscount, registered N7410 operating flight Capital 300 at 8,000ft four miles east of Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 on board the Viscount were killed and the T-33 co-pilot, the T-33 pilot ejected and survived.
• 26 July - Fabled USAF test-pilot Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr. is killed in unsuccessful ejection attempt after the engine of his Lockheed F-104A-15-LO fighter jet, 56-0772, fails during takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA. While flying a Bell X-2, Kincheloe became the first man to exceed 100,000 ft (30,500 m) of altitude, and he is often credited as the first man to enter outer space.
• 9 September – Two B-52s collide over the town of Airway Heights near Fairchild AFB, Washington. B-52D-30-BW, 56-661, c/n 464032, and B-52D-40-BW, 56-681, c/n 464052, both crash. Thirteen crew members are killed, while three survive. There were no casualties on the ground.
• 30 September - A Rolls-Royce test pilot flying an Avro Vulcan, VX770, in an airshow at RAF Syerston pulls up too hard after a high-speed flyby and exceeds the airframe's structural limits, collapsing the plane's right wing. The craft spirals out of control and crashes, killing the entire aircrew and 3 people on the ground.
• 4 November - A USAF B-47 catches fire during take-off from Dyess AFB, Texas, crashes from 1,500 feet altitude. Three crew eject, okay, one killed. Fire sets off single bomb casing on board, creating crater 35X6 feet. Some tritium contamination at crash site.
• 26 November - A USAF B-47 on Alert Status at Chennault AFB, Louisiana, accidentally ignites RATO assisted take-off bottles, is pushed off runway into tow vehicle, catches fire, completely destroying single nuclear weapon on board. Contamination limited to area within aircraft wreckage.

1959

• 10 August - A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Sabre of the Golden Hawks aerobatic team overshot when landing at McCall Airfield, Alberta, with the rest of the team and collided with a Piper Pacer about 2 miles west of the field. Pilot of the Sabre and two occupants of the Pacer were killed.
• 25 September - A United States Navy Martin P5M Marlin out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington on Puget Sound, is forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles W of the Washington-Oregon border. A Betty depth bomb casing is lost and never recovered, but it was not fitted with a nuclear core. Coast Guard rescues all ten crew after ten hours in a raft. The press was not notified at the time.
• 15 October - A USAF B-52F-100-BO, 57-036, collides with KC-135 tanker, 57-1513, over Hardinsberg, Kentucky, crashes with two nuclear weapons on board, killing four of eight on the bomber and all four tanker crew. One bomb partially burned in fire, but both are recovered intact. Bombs moved to the AEC's Clarksville, Tennessee storage site for inspection and dismantlement. Both aircraft deployed from Columbus AFB, Mississippi.

1960

• 6 July - Goodyear ZPG-3W, BuNo 144242, lost hull pressure, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off of New Jersey, eighteen of twenty-one crew lost. This was the last U.S. Navy lighter-than-air loss as it leads to cancellation of airship operations in June 1961.
• 7 July - A Royal Air Force Vickers Varsity T1 WJ914 collided at 1500ft near RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom with a RAF de Havilland Vampire T11 XD549, all six occupants of the Varsity and two in the Vampire died.
• 19 July - In the wake of the Congo Crisis, a Belgian Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar crashes into a mountain in Rushengo near Goma after an engine caught fire. 41 died.
• 12 August - RAF Vickers Valiant Bk.1 XD864 crashes at RAF Spanhoe 3 minutes after take of from RAF Wittering, Cambs. Five crew killed.
• 17 December - A United States Air Force C-131 hits a tramcar at Munich, Germany. 53 died.

1961

• 24 January: A USAF B-52G-95-BW, 58-0187, on airborne alert suffers structural failure, fuel leak, of starboard wing over Goldsboro, North Carolina, wing fails when flaps are engaged during emergency approach to Seymour Johnson AFB, two weapons on board break loose during airframe disintegration, one parachutes safely to ground, second impacts on marshy farm land, breaks apart, sinks into quagmire. Air Force excavates fifty feet down, finds no trace of bomb, forcing permanent digging easement on site. Five of eight crew survive.
• 14 March: Failure of a pressurization system forces USAF B-52 to fly low, accelerating fuel-burn, bomber has fuel starvation at 10,000 feet over Yuba City, California, crashes, killing aircraft commander. Two nuclear weapons on board tear loose on impact but no explosion or contamination takes place.
• 13 June: A United States Navy Grumman S-2 Tracker lost complete power in one engine and partial power in the other. Flying instructor Lt.J.G Loren Vern Page, 24, died 6 hours later at Iberia Parish Hospital, in New Iberia, Louisiana. He intentionally attempted ditching the aircraft in Spanish Lake, near the Naval Auxiliary Air Station New Iberia, after losing power. Students Lt.J.G. Donald L. Miller and a second unnamed student were both hospitalized with treatable injuries. Lt.J.G. Page was posthumously promoted to full Lieutenant status by the Secretary of the Navy, John B. Connally, for courage and valor. Also named for courage during the rescue of the pilot and the 2 students were LCDR Alvin E. Henke, who commanded the rescue mission, Dr. Lt. Donald E. Hines (MC), and hospital corpsman 3rd class Arthur J. Hoeny. Lt.J.G. Miller was also credited with assisting in the rescue. Lt. Page was survived by his wife Elsa and a daughter, Deborah Anne.
• 21 October - Vought F8U-1 Crusader, BuNo 145357, 'AB 12', of VF-11, arrestor hook and right landing gear broke during heavy landing on USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, with aircraft catching alight and going over port side. A series of nine photographs taken by Photographer's Mate L.J. Cera showed the crash sequence with pilot Lt.J.G Kryway ejecting in Martin-Baker Mk. F5 seat just as the fighter leaves the deck. These images were widely distributed in the Navy to assure pilots that the seat could save them. Kryway escapes with minor injuries, being picked up by helicopter ten minutes later. Joe Baugher notes that date of August 21, 1961 has also been reported.
• 12 December - Mid-air collision of two Belgian Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar at Chièvres Air Base, Belgium. 15 died.

1962

• 5 January - Three crew killed in crash of USAF B-47E-105-BW, 52-615, at March AFB, California. This will be the last fatal crash at that base until 19 October 1978.

1963

• 20 March - McDonnell F3H-2 Demon, BuNo 145281, of VF-14 suffers either cold cat launch or failure of cat harness before launch off USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, CV-42, and goes over the bow. Pilot Lt.j.g. Joseph Janiak, Jr. killed, body not recovered.
• 26 June - A Belgian Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar crashes near Detmold, Germany after being accidentally hit by a British mortar bomb. 5 crewmen and 33 paratroopers died, while 9 paratroopers managed to jump into safety using their parachute.
• 10 December: Test pilot Charles Chuck Yeager, out of Edwards AFB, California, zoom climbs NF-104A, 56-0762, modified with rocket engine in tail unit, to over 100,000 feet, but aircraft enters flat spin when directional jets in nose run out of propellant, forcing him to eject. He suffers injuries when his helmet collides with the ejection seat. This mission was very loosely depicted in the film The Right Stuff. Aircraft was originally built as F-104A-10-LO. See also flying accident during a test flight.

1964

• 4 January - NRB-57D, 53-3973, of the Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, suffers structural failure of both wings at 50,000 feet (15240 meters), comes down in schoolyard at Dayton, Ohio, crew bails out. The USAF subsequently grounds all W/RB-57D aircraft.
• 13 January - United States Air Force B-52D-10-BW, 55-060, suffers structural failure in turbulence of winter storm, crashes approximately 17 miles SW of Cumberland, Maryland. Pilot, co-pilot, eject, survive. Navigator, tail gunner, eject, die of exposure. Radar nav fails to eject, rides airframe in with two nuclear weapons on board. Both bombs survive intact and are recovered.
• 11 May - A United States Air Force C-135B-BN, 61-0332, c/n 18239, crashed on landing at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, hitting a taxi. 84 on board, 5 survivors, passengers in taxi also killed. Date of 11 August 1964 cited by Joe Baugher. The crash occurred while attempting to land during a rainstorm at approximately 1920 hrs.
• 10 June - First Lockheed XV-4A, 62-4503, crashes, killing civilian Army test pilot. Aircraft had just transitioned from conventional to vertical flight at 3,000 feet (914 meters) when control was lost. Airframe came down between Dobbins AFB and Woodstock, Georgia, injuring one civilian on ground.
• 9 July - Lockheed test pilot Bill Park ejects safely from Lockheed A-12, 60-6939, Item 133, on approach to Groom Dry Lake, Nevada during test flight after total hydraulic failure.
• 8 December - United States Air Force B-58A, 60-1116, taxiing for take-off on icy taxiway at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, is blown off the pavement by exhaust of another departing B-58, strikes concrete manhole box adjacent to the runway, landing gear collapses, burns. Navigator killed in failed ejection, two other crew okay. Four B43 nuclear bombs and either a W39 or W53 warhead are on board the weapons pod, but no explosion takes place and contamination is limited to crash site.

1965

• 16 January - A United States Air Force KC-135A-BN, 57-1442, c/n 17513, crashed after an engine failure shortly after take off from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, United States of America. The fuel laden plane crashed at the intersection of 20th and Piatt causing a huge fire. 30 were killed 23 on the ground and the 7 member crew.
• 27 April - Ryan XV-5A, 62-4505, noses over from 800 feet (244 meters) and crashes at Edwards AFB, California, during a demonstration in front of several hundred reporters, military personnel, and civilians. Ryan test pilot Lou Everett attempts failed low-altitude ejection, dies.
• 25 June - A United States Air Force C-135A, 60-0373, c/n 18148, out of McGuire AFB, New Jersey, crashed after 0135 hrs. take off in fog and light drizzle from MCAS El Toro, California, United States of America. Pilot flew into Loma Ridge. 84 died. Aircraft was bound for Okinawa.
• 25 August - First Curtiss-Wright X-19A prototype, 62-12197, was destroyed in a crash at NAFEC Caldwell, New Jersey following loss of propellers. Both crew ejected safely. The program was subsequently cancelled.
• 5 December - A-4E Skyhawk of VA-56 on nuclear alert status, armed with either one B43 nuclear bomb or a B61 nuclear bomb (sources differ), rolls off of elevator of aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), in the Pacific Ocean. Airframe, pilot, and bomb are lost in 16,000 feet of water 80 miles from one of the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa. No public mention was made of the incident at the time and it would not come to light until a 1981 Pentagon report revealed that a one-megaton bomb had been lost. Japan then asks for details of the incident.

1966

XB-70 62-0207 following the midair collision on 8 June 1966.

• 17 January – A B-52G-115-BW Stratofortress, 58-0256, of the 68th Bomb Wing out of Seymour-Johnson AFB, North Carolina, collides with a KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 61-0273, c.n 18180, flying boom during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident, breaking bomber's back. Seven crew members are killed in the crash, two eject safely, and two of the B-52's Mark 28 nuclear bombs rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore. The KC-135 landed safely.
• 25 January - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7952, Item 2003, crashes near Tucumcari, New Mexico during test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Bill Weaver survives, but RSO Jim Zwayer KWF.
• 8 June – Second XB-70A-2 Valkyrie prototype, 62-0207, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, following a mid-air collision with a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, NASA 813, previously 013, while the aircraft were in close formation for a photo shoot at the behest of General Electric. The pilot of the F-104N, Dr. Joseph A. Walker, late of the X-15 program, and Maj. Carl Cross, the copilot of the XB-70, are killed.
• 30 July - Lockheed A-12, 60-6941, Item 135, modified as an M-21, D-21 drone carrier for Project Tagboard, is lost during test over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California when the drone strikes the Blackbird during separation at launch. Lockheed employees, pilot Bill Park and launch control officer Ray Torick, both successfully eject, but Torick tragically drowns in a feet-wet landing.
• 5 October - Ryan XV-5A, 62-4506, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, killing Air Force test pilot Maj. David Tittle. During hover, the aircraft began uncontrolled roll to left, pilot ejected at 50 feet (15.24 meters), but chute failed to deploy.

1967

• 5 January - Lockheed A-12, 60-6928, Item 125, lost during training/test flight. Pilot Ken Collins successfully ejects but is killed when he fails to separate from his seat.
• 5 January - Martin MGM-13 Mace, launched from Site A-15, Santa Rosa Island, Hurlburt Field, Florida, by the 4751st Air Defense Squadron, fails to circle over Gulf of Mexico for test mission with two Eglin AFB F-4s, but heads south for Cuba. Third F-4 overtakes it, fires two AAMs with limited success, then damages unarmed drone with cannon fire. Mace overflies western tip of Cuba before crashing in Caribbean Sea 100 miles south of the island. International incident narrowly avoided. To forestall the possibility, the United States State Department asks the Swiss Ambassador in Havana to explain the circumstances of the wayward drone to the Cuban government.
• 10 January - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7950, Item 2001, lost during anti-skid brake system evaluation at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Art Peterson survives.
• 13 April - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7966, Item 2017, crashed near Las Vegas, New Mexico, after a night refuelling devolved into a subsonic high-speed stall. Pilot Boone and RSO Sheffield eject safely.
• 21 April - Fourth prototype F-111B, BuNo 151973, suffers flame-out of both engines at 200 feet after take-off, killing the project pilot Ralph Donnell and co-pilot Charles Wangeman.
• 10 May - Northrop M2-F2, NASA 803, crashes on landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, due to a pilot-induced oscillation coupled with misjudged height and drift. Airframe rolls over six times, footage used for television program "The Six Million Dollar Man". Pilot survives.
• 15 November - On the 191st flight of the X-15 program out of Edwards AFB, California, the third of three, 56-6672, suffers problems during reentry from 266,000 foot altitude, 3,750 mph mission. Airframe has massive structural failure, killing pilot Michael J. Adams, the only fatality in X-15s.

1968

• 11 January - Lockheed SR-71B, 61-7957, Item 2008, one of only two dual control pilot trainers, is lost on approach to Beale Air Force Base, California, due to fuel cavitation induced engine failure. Instructor pilot Lt. Col. Robert G. Souers and student Capt. David E. Fruehauf eject safely.
• 21 January - A B-52G-100-BW Stratofortress, 58-0188, c.n. 4642256, from Plattsburgh AFB, New York, carrying four hydrogen bombs crashes on the ice seven miles short of Thule Air Base, Greenland. 1 crew member killed; all four B-28 weapons are consumed in post-crash fire, extensive contamination of site, several relief workers exposed to radiation. See also B-52 crash at Thule Air Base.
• 6 May - Astronaut Neil Armstrong ejects from Bell Aerospace Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, known as the "Flying Bedstead", at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, as it goes out of control. Had he ejected 1/2 second later, his chute would not have deployed fully. Armstrong suffers a bit tongue.
• 5 June - Lockheed A-12, 60-6932, Item 129, lost off of Okinawa after deployment to Kadena Air Base in support of Operation Black Shield. Pilot Jack Weeks KWF. One source gives date as June 2.
• 12 August - Avro Vulcan B2 XL390 of No. 617 Squadron Royal Air Force crashed during an air display at Naval Air Station Glenview, United States. All crew members killed.
• 19 August - Handley Page Victor K1 XH646 of No. 214 Squadron RAF collided in mid-air near Holt, Norfolk, United Kingdon in bad weather with a 213 Squadron English Electric Canberra WT325, all four crew members of the Victor died
• 11 September - Second prototype F-111B, BuNo 151971, crashes into the Pacific Ocean killing Hughes pilot Barton Warren and his RIO Anthony Byland.
• 10 October - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7977, Item 2028, lost at end of runway, Beale Air Force Base, California after tire explosion and runway abort. Pilot Maj. Gabriel A. Kardong rode airframe to a standstill. RSO James A. Kogler ejected safely. Both survived.
• 11 October - Fifth prototype U.S. Navy F-111B BuNo 151974 crash landed at Point Mugu, California. Scrapped. Navy abandons the F-111B program completely and both houses of Congress refuse to fund production order in May 1968.
• 13 December - USAF B-57E 54-4284 of the 8th TBS, 35th TFW, has mid-air collision with C-123 Provider 55-0600 over Xieng Khovang, southern Laos, all crew KWF.

1969

• 10 March or 14 March - Lockheed XV-4B, 62-5404, on conventional test flight out of Dobbins AFB, Georgia, suddenly entered rapid roll while climbing through 8,000 feet (2438 meters), pilot Harlan Quamme, unable to recover, ejects, suffering minor injuries.
• 11 April - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7954, Item 2005, crashes on runway during take off from Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Lt. Col. Bill Skliar and RSO Maj. Noel Warner escape without injury.
• 15 April - North Korean MiG-17s shoot down a Navy EC-121M Warning Star, BuNo 135749, c/n 4316, of VQ-1, over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 aboard.
• 18 May - USMC KC-130F BuNo 149814, c/n 3723, of VMGR-352, collided head-on with F-4B BuNo 151001 of VMFA-542, MAG-13, from Chu Lai (both crew killed), while refuelling two F-4Bs of VMFA-314 over South Vietnam near Phu Bai. Two crew of F-4B BuNo 151450, survived after jettisoning bombs and ejecting, while the second F-4B recovered safely to Chu Lai. Lars Olausson states that the KC-130F was from VMGR-352, while Chris Hobson claims it was assigned to VMGR-152.
• 23 May - A drunken U.S. Air Force crew chief started up a C-130E, 63-7789, c/n 3856, of the 36th Tactical Airlift Squadron at RAF Mildenhall and took off in it headed for Langley AFB, Virginia. He crashed into the English Channel off Alderney shortly thereafter. There is speculation whether the Hercules was shot down.
• 5 June – Crash of Rivet Amber, the U.S. Air Force's sole Boeing RC-135E, 62-4137, c/n 18477, lost over the Bering Sea near Alaska. Nothing was ever found of the aircraft or the 19 on board.
• 20 September - An Air Vietnam Douglas DC-4 (C-54D-10-DC), XV-NUG, c/n 10860, collided on approach to landing with an American United States Air Force F-4 Phantom near Da Nang, Vietnam. 77 died.
• 9 October - A USAF B-52F-70-BW, 57-0172, of the 329th Bomb Squadron, crashed about 1,000 feet beyond end of runway while doing touch-and-goes at Castle AFB, California. All six crew died in the 2345 hrs. accident as the Stratofortress exploded on impact.
• 25 October - Two United States Air Force Academy faculty are killed when their T-33A crashed and burned in a meadow near the main runway while landing at Peterson Field, Colorado. Pilot was Maj. Donald J. Usry, 32, of the academy faculty, and back-seater was Capt. Martin Bezyack, of the academy's athletic department.
• 18 December - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7953, Item 2004, crashes near Shoshone, California during test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Lt. Col. Joe Rogers and RSO Lt. Col. Gary Heidelbaugh eject safely.
• 22 December: A United States Navy F-8 Crusader of VF-194 crashes into hangar at NAS Miramar, California during emergency landing, killing 14 and injuring 30. Pilot ejected safely. Five other fighters, including two F-4s, are damaged in the repair facility fire that ensues. Helicopters and military and civilian ambulances were used to transport the injured to Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego.

1970

• 3 April - A USAF B-52D-60-BO Stratofortress, 55-089, c/n 464-17205, of the 26th Bomb Wing caught fire and crashed during landing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, skidding into a brick storage building containing 25,000 gallons of jet fuel. Heroic efforts by crash crew save all nine on board, although one suffered broken limbs, and three firefighters were injured. One of the eight jet engines ran for forty minutes following crash.
• 28 April - A USAF F-4 being ferried from Robins AFB, Georgia to Torrejon Air Base, Spain, was disabled by a severe thunderstorm, forcing the crew to eject at 36,000 feet 150 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina, suffering minor injuries from hail while descending. Pilot Capt. Daniel Heitz, 25, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and navigator Lt. MacArthur Weston, 28, of Jacksonville, North Carolina are spotted by rescue aircraft, and are recovered by the oil tanker Texaco Illinois, diverted from 8 miles away.
• 10 May - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7969, Item 2020, crashed near Korat RTAFB, Thailand, after a refuelling resulted in a subsonic high-speed stall. Pilot Lawson and RSO Martinez eject safely.
• 22 May - A USAF T-33A of the 1st Composite Wing, Andrews AFB, Maryland, crashes just short of the north runway on approach to that base, killing pilot Maj. Jerry H. McDowell, 36, Clinton, Maryland, and Lt. Edwin D. Billmeyer, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, and injuring three motorists on the ground.
• 24 May - A USAF C-5A makes an emergency landing at Dobbins AFB, Georgia, suffering an electrical malfunction that knocks out landing lights, causes minor damage to the nosegear and flattens four of 28 tires.
• 27 May: A USAF C-5A catches fire while taxiing at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, due to an electrical fire in the cargo compartment. Five crew escape, but seven firefighters suffer minor injuries fighting blaze.
• 6 June: A USAF C-5A, fifteenth off the production line, but first to be delivered to any operational Military Airlift Command wing, loses one tire and blows another on landing at Charleston AFB, South Carolina for the 437th MAW.
• 17 June - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7970, Item 2021, collides with KC-135Q tanker 20 miles E of El Paso, New Mexico. Pilot Buddy Brown and RSO Mort Jarvis eject safely. Tanker limps back to Beale Air Force Base, California.
• 30 July - USMC KC-130F, BuNo 150685, c/n 3728, of VMGR-152, crashed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Lake Forest, California during misjudged maximum effort landing - wings broke, fuselage ended up overturned, burned.
• 5 August - A USAF F-4 of the 36th TFW, Bitburg, Germany, TDY to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain, crashes on a gunnery range near Zaragoza, killing pilot Capt. Charles A. Baldwin and navigator Capt. Stephen N. Smith.
• 11 November -A USAF F-4 crashes in the North Sea after an engine fire. Both crew eject. Capt. Johnny Jones, 28, of Snow Hill, North Carolina, and Capt. David Allen, 27, of Darien, Connecticut are rescued by helicopter, officials at Ruislip, England said.
• 15 November - US Navy S-2 Tracker crashes at Fort Dix, New Jersey killing four. Wreckage found on 16 November in wooded area off Range Road. Killed were pilot Navy Lt.J.G. James K. Larson, 24, of Milltown, New Jersey, co-pilot 1st Lt. (USMC) Carleton C. Perine, 25, of Orange, New Jersey, and passengers Navy Airman Apprentice Robert Suttle, 20, of Bricktown, New Jersey, and Navy Airman Apprentice Gary B. Warner, 19, of Central Bridge, New York.
• 16 November - A U.S. Navy F-4 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles east of the Virginia Capes shortly after launch from the carrier USS Forrestal, CVA-59. Two crew, out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, are lost, the Navy reported on November 17. Pilot was Lt.j.g. John Dale O'Connor, and RSO was Lt.j.g. Thomas F. Hanagan, both of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

1971

• 7 January - An unarmed USAF B-52C-45-BO, 54-2666, of the 9th BW, Westover AFB, Massachusetts, crashed into Lake Michigan near Charlevoix, Michigan during a practice bomb run, exploding on impact. Only a small amount of wreckage, two life vests, and some spilled fuel was found in Little Traverse Bay. Bomber went down six nautical miles from the Bay Shore Air Force Radar Site. Nine crew KWF.
• 6 June - USMC F-4B-18-MC Phantom II, BuNo 151458, en route from NAS Fallon, Nevada to MCAS El Toro, California, has mid-air collision with Hughes Airwest Flight 706, DC-9-31, N9345, out of Los Angeles International Airport, at 1811 hrs. over the San Gabriel Mountains, N of Duarte, California. Collision at 15,150 feet altitude killed F-4 pilot 1st Lt. James R. Phillips, 28, of Denver, Colorado (inoperable canopy release), the RIO ejecting and landing near Azusa, California. All 44 passengers and five crew members were killed aboard the DC-9, which impacted into a remote canyon of Mt. Bliss approximately three miles N of the city of Duarte. The wreckage of the F-4B fighter landed in another canyon approximately .75 miles SE of the DC-9's crash site. Although visibility was good, with no clouds, both crews failed to see and avoid each other. The Airwest DC-9 jetliner was under radar control, but the F-4B fighter was flying with an inoperable transponder that made it invisible on air traffic control radar screens. The RIO, Lt. Christopher E. Schiess, 24, of Salem, Oregon, admitted to inquiry board that the F-4B had performed a 360-degree slow roll about a minute before the collision. One of the early leaders of campus antiwar activism, Prof. Arnold Kaufman, at the University of Michigan in 1965, was killed aboard the DC-9.
• 11 September - Lockheed C-121 of the West Virginia Air National Guard, carrying five state governors to a conference in Puerto Rico, experiences engine problems, force-lands at Homestead AFB, Florida. Governors of Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, Texas and Utah, transfer to another aircraft to continue flight.
• 28 September - A United States Navy P-3 Orion, on patrol over the Sea of Japan, is fired on by a Soviet Sverdlov class cruiser in international waters. The P-3 was checking a group of Soviet Navy ships cruising off the shore of Japan when crew members reported seeing tracer rounds fired well ahead of the Orion. Immediately following the incident, authorities recalled the P-3 to its base at MCAS Iwakuni, and all surveillance craft were pulled back five miles.
• 29 September - A USAF C-5A of the 443rd Military Airlift Wing, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, one of six used for training, had its number one (port outer) engine tear off the pylon while advancing take-off power before brake release, setting the wing on fire. The crew evacuated safely within 90 seconds and the fire was extinguished by emergency equipment. The engine had flown up and behind the Galaxy, landing some 250 yards to the rear. The Air Force subsequently grounded six other C-5s with similar flight hours and cycles. Further investigation found cracks in younger C-5s and the entire fleet was grounded.
• 19 October - Grumman E-2B Hawkeye and Ling-Temco-Vought A-7B Corsair II, both from the USS Midway, CVA-41, collided over the Sea of Japan, with E-2 crashing near the stern of the carrier, all five crew lost. A-7 pilot ejected safely, picked up by helicopter from MCAS Iwakuni in good condition.
• 29 October - A USAF T-33A crashes near Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, both crew ejecting before the airframe impacted in a sugar cane field; one seriously injured, one with minor injuries.
• 7 November - A USAF F-4 Phantom II and a USAF F-106A-130-CO Delta Dart, 59-0125, of the 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Hamilton AFB, California, suffer mid-air and crash in isolated areas near Nellis AFB, Nevada. All three crew eject and survive. F-4 crew, Maj. Henry J. Viccellio and Maj. James A. Robertson, okay. Phantom comes down 35 miles from Caliente, Nevada, Delta Dart attempts recovery to Nellis but pilot Maj. Clifford L. Lowrey ejects eight miles NE of base.

1972

• 19 February - C-130E 62-1813, c.n. 3775, of the 16th Tactical Airlift Training Squadron, mid-air collision with Cessna T-37 from Biggs AFB, Texas, 6 kilometers northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas - four killed on Hercules. Two Tweet pilots eject safely.
• 14 March - Two F-4 Phantoms have mid-air collision over the town of El Buste, Spain, about 30 miles from the joint US-Spanish base at Zaragoza. All four crewmen are KWF. Debris showered down onto the town, damaging communications and starting several roof fires, but no injuries to townspeople. Aircraft were returning to base in strong winds and broken clouds after a routine gunnery mission.
• 31 March - Twenty minutes after take-off from McCoy AFB, Florida, a USAF B-52D-80-BO, 56-0625, of the 306th Bomb Wing, suffers in-flight fire in engine number seven which spreads to starboard wing; attempts emergency landing at McCoy, crashes one quarter mile short of runway, killing seven on board, injuring eight civilians on the ground, destroys four houses.
• 8 April - Hawker-Siddeley Andover C.1, bound for the United Kingdom, carrying 18-man paratroop exhibition team, crashes on take-off at Siena, Italy, digging in starboard wingtip before skidding 300 yards across airfield and catching fire. Four killed, four injured, most escaping before fuel tank ignited.
• 20 July - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7978, Item 2029, lost in landing accident at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Pilot Capt. Dennis K. Bush and RSO Jimmy Fagg are unhurt.
• 13 October – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a Fairchild FH-227D, T-571, c/n 572, carrying a rugby union team from Montevideo to a match in Santiago, Chile, crashes in a remote region of the Andes on the Chile-Argentina border. Of the 45 on board, 12 died in the crash, five died by the following morning, and one died from his injuries a week later. The survivors were eventually forced to resort to cannibalism to live, feeding off the bodies of the dead that had been preserved by the freezing temperatures. On December 12, the remaining survivors sent three of their own to find help. After sending one of the party back to the crash site to preserve rations, the remaining two found help. The 14 survivors remaining at the crash site were rescued in a mission that ended on December 23. The story would spawn a critically-acclaimed book in 1974, along with several film adaptations.
• 24 November - Two USAF RF-4Cs of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, suffer mid-air collision over the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles of off Pawley's Island at about 1450 hrs. Two crew from one Phantom recovered by UH-1N of Detachment 8, 44th ARRSq, out of Myrtle Beach AFB, but two others including one officer of HQ 9th Air Force, Shaw AFB, are lost.
• 5 December - During an aerospace defense command training mission, F-102A, 56-1517, from McEntire Air National Guard Base, South Carolina, collided with C-130E, 64-0558, of the 318th SOS, out of Pope AFB, North Carolina, during a simulated interception, over the Bayboro area of Horry County, east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. One killed in the Delta Dagger, and all twelve aboard the Hercules perish. Some press reports list Conway, South Carolina, west of the crash site, as the location.

1973

• 7 February - A US Navy A-7 Corsair II piloted by Lt. Robert Lee Ward, 28, one of two on a routine training flight to Sacramento, California from NAS Lemoore near Fresno, California, crashes in Alameda, after breaking formation at 28,000 feet for unexplained reasons. Fighter strikes four-story Tahoe Apartments building at 1814 Central Avenue in the city center with fire spreading to other structures, killing pilot and ten civilians, 26 injured. Navy inquiry found evidence of a cockpit fire involving the pilot’s oxygen hose, and that the in-flight blaze was “very near” Ward’s oxygen mask. Speculation that smoking could have caused it, but no proof. Lawsuits for more than $700,000 were filed in connection with the disaster, including a $500,000 damage action filed in Alameda County Superior Court by owner of the demolished 36-unit Tahoe Apartments.
• 12 April - A United States Navy P-3C-125-LO Orion, BuNo 157332, c/n 185-5547, of VP-47 and a Convair 990, N711NA, '711', "Galileo", (formerly N5601G), belonging to NASA, collided while on final approach to NAS Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California and crashed short of the runway. The planes fell on the Sunnyvale Municipal Golf Course and 16 of the 17 people aboard the two planes were killed.

1974

• 8 February - A USAF B-52G-95-BW, 58-0174, of the 744th BS, 456th BW, veered off the runway during night take-off from Beale AFB, California, skidded 1,500 feet through a muddy field before overturning, destroyed by four massive explosions and fire. One crew, the first pilot, was thrown free with severe burns, but seven others perished.
• 9 February - Two USAF F-105s of the 457th TFS (TH tailcode), 506th TFG, 301st Reserve TFW, Carswell AFB, Texas, suffer mid-air collision, downing one Thud ~1 mile from Holliday, Texas, pilot Capt. Frank E. Peck ejecting, suffering broken right leg on landing, recovered by helicopter. Second F-105 recovers to Carswell despite damage, pilot Lt. Hays C. Kirby uninjured.
• 10 February: A USAF T-39A returning to McClellan AFB, California collides with a USAF NKC-135A at 23,000 feet, over Peterson Field, Colorado, killing all seven on board T-39. Sabreliner had experienced landing gear trouble, rendezvoused with NKC-135 for look-over, accidentally strikes rear fuselage and fin of Boeing. NKC-135 lands safely, was en route from Seattle, Washington to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.
• 4 March - A USAF CIM-10 Bomarc missile of the 4751st ADS, Hurlburt Field, Florida, explodes on Santa Rosa Island due to a malfunction shortly after launch from Site A-15, impacting on government property adjacent to the launchsite. Eglin AFB authorities confirmed that there were no personnel injuries, and local law enforcement agencies had received no damage reports.
• 5 March - A United States Navy RA-5C crashes in the Gulf of Mexico 35 miles west of Tampa, Florida. Both crew eject, two chutes observed, but only the navigator is recovered.
• 5 March - A USAF KC-135A, 57-1500, c/n 17571, of the 91st Air Refuelling Squadron, 384th Air Refuelling Wing, crashed and burned shortly after take-off from McConnell AFB, Kansas, killing two of seven crew. Air Force spokesmen reported that the aircraft was carrying 136,000 pounds of fuel when it crashed 3,000 feet from the main runway, after it apparently lost power.
• 5 March - A USAF KC-135A of the 7th Air Refuelling Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, en route from Eielson AFB, Alaska to its homebase at Carswell AFB, Texas, suffered explosive decompression when a small window blew out at 35,000 feet at 1630 hrs. EST about 40 miles SE of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. One passenger of the 25 aboard died from the effects of the rapid decompression; others and eight crew okay. The tanker made an emergency landing at a Canadian Armed Forces Base at Edmonton, Alberta.
• 29 April - A USAF Martin MQM-13B Mace of the 4751st ADS, crashed in a wooded area of Eglin AFB, Florida, approximately ~1.5 miles north of Auxiliary Field 4 after launch from Eglin Site A-10 on Santa Rosa Island about 1200 hrs. for a routine Air National Guard training mission. There were no injuries or property damage although a small brushfire was ignited, quickly extinguished. The okay to launch the remaining nine remaining Maces during June for air-to-air missile tests was given on 29 May 1974. "Officials noted that 154 mace [sic] target missiles had been fired prior to this failure, with none failing due to a similar problem."
• 31 July - A United States Navy E-2 Hawkeye based at NAS Norfolk, Virginia, crashed on take-off from CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina during a touch-and-go, striking a maintenance facility, triggering a fire in a fibreglass and upholstery shop. Instructor pilot, three civilians killed, student pilot, and 12-18 others injured.
• 18 August - Lockheed C-141A, 65-0274, c.n. 300-6126, of the 437th MAW, Charleston AFB, South Carolina, hits Mount Potosi at the 19,000 foot level, ~17 miles from destination, John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Paz, Bolivia, killing seven crew.
• 1 September - The Sikorski S-67 Blackhawk company demonstrator N671SA crashed while attempting to recover from a roll at too low an altitude during its display at the Farnborough Air Show, United Kingdom, killing its two crew.

1975

• 24 March - A Royal Air Force Handley Page Victor K1A XH618 of 57 Squadron collided with a RAF Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer XV156 during a simulated refuelling. Buccaneer hit the Victor's tailplane causing the aircraft to crash into the sea 95 miles E of Sunderland, County, Durham.
• 4 April – A USAF C-5A Galaxy, 68-0218, c/n 500-0021, taking part in Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon, experiences an explosive decompression about 40 mi (64 km) outside Saigon when the rear ramp and pressure door blow out, damaging the plane's flight controls. The plane, carrying over 300 crew, troops, children, and adult escorts, crashes into a rice paddy after the pilot loses control while trying to return to Tan Son Nhut Air Base; 138 die, including 127 orphans.
• 14 October – An RAF Avro Vulcan B2, XM645, of 9 Sqn RAF Waddington breaks up over Zabbar, Malta, after a hard landing shears off the port-side undercarriage, piercing a wing fuel tank and starting a fire. The pilot and co-pilot initiate a second landing attempt but eject when they realize that the plane cannot make it back to the runway. The subsequent explosion kills 5 crew members who remained aboard, and an electrical cable severed by falling debris kills a bystander on the ground.
• December - Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair II, 67-14586, c/n D.005, while assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida's 3246th Test Wing, Air Development & Test Center for mission support, suffered engine failure on take-off from Tallahassee Municipal Airport, Florida and made forced landing, coming down largely intact. Airframe was hauled back to Eglin AFB on a truck, where it was either scrapped or became a target hulk.

1976

• 30 January - A Convair PQM-102 Delta Dagger, belonging to the Fairchild Corporation according to a press report, crashed on landing at Bob Sikes Airport, Crestview, Florida when the landing gear collapsed. Airframe destroyed by fire. Sperry Flight Systems pilot, Earl C. Pearce, was unhurt.
• 25 October - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7965, Item 2016, lost near Lovelock, Nevada during night training sortie following INS platform failure. Pilot St. Martin and RSO Carnochan eject safely.
• 21 December - Imperial Iranian Air Force C-130H c.n. 4463, delivered as 5-148, September 1972, renumbered 5-142, November 1973, renumbered 5-8536, 1976, crashed during approach in bad weather to Shiraz, Iran.

1977

• 3 March - Aeronautica Militare Italiana, Italian Air Force C-130H MM61996 46-10, c.n. 4492, of the 46 Aerobrigata, crashed into Monte Serra, 15 kilometers E of Pisa, Italy.
• 21 June - USN EC-130Q TACAMO III BuNo 156176, c.n. 4280, of VQ-3, crashed in the Pacific Ocean after night take-off from Wake Island.

1978

• 27 March - A USN F-14 Tomcat crashes and catapults across scrub grass to come to rest against a concrete highway divider on I-163 on approach to NAS Miramar, San Diego, California, exploding in flames. Both crew members eject seconds before impact; one fatality, no civilian deaths.
• 19 October - A USAF B-52D-75-BO, 56-0594, of the 22nd Bomb Wing, crashes at 0730 hrs. in light fog in a plowed field ~2.5 miles SE of March AFB, near the rural community of Sunnymead, California, shortly after take-off. Five crew killed, but one is able to escape the burning wreckage and was reported in stable condition at the base hospital. Traffic was disrupted on nearby Interstate 15E.
• 26 October - A USAF A-7D on flight from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, crashes on approach to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, coming down in street between University of Arizona buildings and Mansfield Junior High School in Tucson, killing driver of auto struck by the fighter, and injuring at least six other civilians. Pilot Capt. Frederick Ashler, 28, ejected safely while passing over the university campus.
• 7 November - USN A-4F Blue Angel, BuNo 155056, during pre-show exhibition at NAS Miramar, San Diego, California, pilot, Lt. Mike Curtain (sp?-Curtin?), dead on impact, no ejection.

1979

• 23 January - Aeronautica Militare Italiana, Italian Air Force C-130H MM62000, '46-14', c/n 4497, of the 46 Aerobrigata, jumped chocks during engine run-up, hit tree, written-off. Parts used to support c/n 4491, MM61995 damaged in hard landing, Pisa, January 1999. Hull at Milan-Malpensa, Italy, December 1979, 1989.
• 1 February - Pakistani Air Force C-130B 23488, c/n 3698, former USAF 62-3488, coded 'P', registered AQ-ACP, then AS-HFP, jumped chocks during night engine test run, collided with C-130E 10687, c/n 4117, former USAF 65-10687, coded 'D'. Both written off, hulls at Lahore, June, 1981.

1980

• 24 April - Operation Eagle Claw - A contingent of American military aircraft embarks on a commando raid to rescue a group of American hostages held by Iran. An unexpected sandstorm forces 2 USMC RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters to divert before reaching the first rendezvous point and causes serious mechanical damage to a third, prompting commanders to abort the mission. While attempting to evacuate personnel and equipment that had already arrived at the rendezvous point, the pilot of another Sea Stallion loses situational awareness in dustcloud during takeoff and collides with a USAF C-130 Hercules, killing 8 US servicemen aboard both aircraft.
• 29 October - A USAF C-130 Hercules outfitted with experimental JATO rockets for Operation Credible Sport, a planned second attempt to rescue American hostages held by Iran, is destroyed when the rockets misfire during a test landing at Duke Field, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA. All crew members survive, but the rescue operation is deemed excessively risky and is cancelled.

1981

• 12 January - Leftist terrorists, the Puerto Rican Popular Army, also known as the "Machete Wielders", seeking Puerto Rican independence, use homemade bombs to destroy eight Air National Guard Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair IIs and a retired Lockheed F-104 Starfighter at Puerto Rico Air National Guard Muñiz Air Base, located on the northeastern corner of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Three bombs in two planes were removed before they exploded.
• 6 May - A mechanical failure caused an abrupt nose pitch-down of USAF EC-135N ARIA, 61-0328, c/n 18235, to crash in a farmer's field, in Walkersville, Maryland. All 21 aboard were killed. Some of those aboard were family members. A memorial has been built at Walkersville Heritage Farm Park. Aircraft was originally delivered as a C-135A-BN Stratolifter.
• 26 May - EA-6B Prowler crash landed on flight deck of USS Nimitz, CVN-68, off the Florida coast, killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others (some reports say 48). The crash was the result of the aircraft missing the last arresting cable, while ignoring a wave-off command. Forensic testing conducted found that several members of the deceased flightdeck crew tested positive for marijuana (the officers onboard the aircraft were never tested). The responsibility for the accident was placed on the deck crew. The official naval inquiry stated that the accident was the result of drug abuse by the enlisted crewmen of the Nimitz, despite the fact that every death occurred during the impact of the crash and not one member of the deck crew was killed fighting the fire. As a result of this incident, President Ronald Reagan instituted a "Zero Tolerance" policy across all of the armed services - which started the mandatory drug testing of all US service personnel.
• 29 October - A U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowler from NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, crashes at 0850 hrs. in a rural field near Virginia Beach, Virginia, killing three crew. Wreckage sprayed onto nearby houses, a barn and a stable with 35 horses, but no fires were sparked and there were no ground injuries. The Prowler had departed NAS Norfolk with three other aircraft at 0832 hrs., bound for the USS John F. Kennedy, off the Virginia coast before crashing three miles from NAS Oceana. Navy officials said they did not know if the pilot was trying for Oceana.
• 30 October - A USAF B-52D-55-BO, 55-078, of the 22nd Bomb Wing, March AFB, California, crashes on the eastern Colorado prairie near La Junta at 0630 hrs. while on a low-level (400 foot altitude) training mission, killing all eight crew. No weapons were onboard.
• 17 November - US Navy Lockheed S-3 Viking from the USS Nimitz, CVN-68, is lost near Sardinia with all four aviators killed.
• 22 November - US Navy Ling-Temco-Vought A-7E Corsair II from the USS Nimitz, CVN-68, air wing and based at Cecil Field, Florida, crashed at 1200 hrs. ~120 miles NW of Sardinia. Fighter was returning to the ship after routine mission.

1982

• 18 January - Worst accident in U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Demonstration Team history, when four T-38As crashed during pre-season training. While practicing the 4 plane diamond loop, the formation impacted the ground at high speed, instantly killing all four pilots: Major Norm Lowry, leader, Captain Willie Mays, Captain Pete Peterson and Captain Mark Melancon. The cause of the crash was officially listed by the USAF as the result of a mechanical problem with the #1 aircraft's control stick actuator. During formation flight, the wing and slot pilots visually cue off of the #1 lead aircraft, completely disregarding their positions in relation to the ground.
• 25 May - An RAF F-4 Phantom II piloted by Roy Lawrence and Alistair Inverarity was engaging an RAF SEPECAT Jaguar piloted by Steve Griggs in training exercises. During the encounter the Phantom shot a live AIM-9 Sidewinder forcing the Jaguar pilot to eject.
• 29 November - Shortly after completing a training mission, a USAF B-52G-130-BW, 59-4766, suffered hydraulics fire in nose gear, exploded at the end of the runway at Castle AFB, California, but crew of nine escaped before it was fully engulfed. Aircraft commander ordered evacuation as soon as he learned of the wheel fire.

1983

• 27 January - Five are killed and eight injured when a USAF B-52G Stratofortress catches fire and explodes at 0930 hrs. on the ramp at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. The Stratofortress was undergoing routine maintenance after flying a training mission the previous night.
• 28 April - A USAF A-7D of the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Richmond International Airport, crashed near Richmond, Virginia, shearing unoccupied house in half and setting second structure on fire. Pilot Capt. Robert Welch, 30, of Atlanta, Georgia, ejected just before impact, suffering a slight back injury.

1984

• 16 October - An unarmed USAF B-52G-80-BW, 57‑6479, of the 92nd Bomb Wing out of Fairchild AFB, Washington, crashed about 2100 hrs. into a mesa on the Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona 13 miles NE of Kayenta, during a low-level training flight. Eight crew eject and recovered in a day; one ejects, missing; gunner KWF.

1985

• 27 June – An RAF C-130 Hercules and a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter collide in cloud north of the Falkland Islands, at around 300 ft. The Hercules lost the wing beyond its #1 engine but still managed to land. The Sea King, based at RNAS Culdrose, was lost and all four on board killed.
• 13 July – Blue Angels Aircraft 5, BuNo 155029, and 6, BuNo 154992, (Douglas A-4F) collide at the top of a loop at 1532 hrs., Niagara Falls International Airport, New York, during the Western New York Air Show '85, killing Lt. Cmdr. Michael Gershon. Second pilot, Lt. Andy Caputi, ejects safely with only minor injuries. One Skyhawk crashed on airport grounds while the second fighter impacted in a nearby auto junkyard.
• 8 August -A USAF Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair II lost power, caught fire and crashed into Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, pilot Maj. Dennis D. Nielson staying with aircraft as he attempted to steer it towards less-populous area before ejecting, but fighter impacted house, killing one, injuring one, one missing, said a United Press International report. Second victim found on August 9.
• 8 August - A USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed during a training mission in northwest Utah, killing the pilot.
• 15 November - A US Navy turboprop Convair C-131 crashed shortly after takeoff from Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, killing two pilots of the Navy's Fleet Logistic Support Squadron, Andrews AFB, Maryland, and a flight engineer, also of Andrews AFB. Jack MacMullen, 34, a Navy lieutenant commander, from Seabrook, Maryland, John Bryan Gore,30, a Navy lieutenant, of Centreville, Virginia, and Robert Scott Grey, of Andrews AFB, KWF.
• 12 December – Arrow Air Flight 1285, a chartered DC-8-63CF, N950JW, c/n 46058, line number '433', crashes just after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, killing 256 people, of whom 248 were soldiers in the US Army 101st Airborne Division returning from overseas duty in the Sinai desert, Egypt. This remains the greatest peacetime loss of military personnel in US history.

1986

• 22 May - US Navy A-6E Intruder, bound for the USS John F. Kennedy at Puerto Rico, crashes on takeoff from NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, at 1105 hrs., killing two crew and one motorist on Oceana Boulevard. Aircraft had no munitions but carried a full fuel load and burst into flame as it came down just outside the station perimeter, killing pilot Lt. James P. Hoban, 26, of River Vale, New Jersey, and bombardier-navigator Lt. Michael F. Wilson, 27, of Medford, New Jersey, as well as Navy wife Tammy Fowler, 25, of Virginia Beach, in the vehicle on Oceana Boulevard. Navy officials said that this was the first Navy plane crash in the area in more than two years. Witnesses reported that the Intruder's tail appeared to be on fire as it came down.

1987

• 24 June - RAF SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1A, XZ386, '05', of 226 OCU, suffers loss of control/controlled flight into terrain three miles (5 km.) SE of Builth Wells, Powys, Wales. Pilot KWF.
• 20 October - USAF Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair II, 69-6207, of the 4450th Tactical Group, Nellis AFB, Nevada, loses all power 15 miles S of Indianapolis, Indiana at 31,000 feet while en route from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. Pilot tries to dead-stick into Indianapolis International Airport but receives poor direction from air traffic controllers and crashes at ~0915 hrs. during late turn after aiming plane at a baseball field but fighter veers, striking bank branch roof and hitting center of Ramada Inn across the street, killing nine employees, injuring five others. Pilot Maj. Bruce L. Teagarden, 35, ejected, suffering bruises and muscle strain. He lands in parking lot of Ace Supply Company, four blocks from the hotel. Air Force pays out $50,427 in property claims damages, according to the New York Times on 26 October.

1988

• 24 April - Marine Corps Colonel Jerry Cadick, then commanding officer of MAG-11, was performing stunts at the MCAS El Toro Air Show before a crowd of 300,000 when he crashed his F/A-18 Hornet at the bottom of a loop that was too close to the ground.[20] The aircraft was in a nose-high attitude, but still carrying too much energy toward the ground when it impacted at more than 300 mph (480 km/h). Col. Cadick was subjected to extremely high G forces that resulted in his face making contact with the control stick and sustaining serious injury. He broke his arm, elbow and ribs, exploded a vertebra and collapsed a lung. Col. Cadick survived and retired from the Marine Corps. The F/A-18 remained largely intact but was beyond repair.
• 6 May - CH-53D with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron-46 crashed into South China Sea killing all 17 on board.
• 17 August – A PAF C-130B Hercules, 23494, 'R' (ex-USAF 62-3494), c/n 3708, crashes near the Pakistani town of Bahawalpur, killing everyone aboard, including the President of Pakistan General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, American Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel, Head of Pakistan's military intelligence General Akther Abdul Rehman and nearly all of the top military brass of the Pakistan Army.
• 28 August – Ramstein airshow disaster: Three of the ten Aermacchi MB-339PAN jets from the Italian Air Force display team Frecce Tricolori collide in mid-air in front of the audience while performing their 'pierced heart' formation. One aircraft crashes directly into the crowd. Sixty-seven spectators and all three pilots are killed and 346 seriously injured in the resulting explosion and fire.
• 5 December - A U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowler goes missing over the Pacific Ocean during training exercise 900 miles off San Diego. Search fails to find any sign of the four crew.
• 6 December - A USAF B-52H-150-BW, 60-0040, crashed on the runway at 0115 hrs. EST at K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan, while doing touch-and-goes after a seven-hour training flight. No weapons were aboard the bomber, which broke into three parts. All crew survived, crawling or being helped from the nose section, without sustaining burns.
• 8 December – Remscheid plane crash: An USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into the West German town of Remscheid. The pilot and five residents are killed, and a further 50 people injured.

1989

• 29 January - A RCAF CC-130E, 130318, formerly 10318, c/n 4124, of 43 Squadron, participating in annual Brim Frost exercises hits runway lights and a river bank short of the runway and crashes onto the runway at Wainwright AAF, Alaska at -46 degrees Fahrenheit. Eleven of the eighteen occupants are killed.
• 2 February - The first prototype JAS 39 Gripen crashed on its sixth flight when landing in Linköping as a result of pilot-induced oscillation. The accident was filmed in a now famous recording by a crew from Sveriges Television's Aktuellt. The pilot remained in the tumbling aircraft, and escaped miraculously with just a fractured arm.
• 21 April - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7974, Item 2025, outbound on operational sortie from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, suffers engine explosion, total hydraulic failure. Pilot Maj. Dan E. House and RSO Capt. Blair L. Bozek both eject safely.
• July 4 - A "runaway" Soviet MiG-23 crashes into a farmhouse in Belgium, killing an 18-year-old man.
• 30 November - An A-4F Skyhawk assigned to the US Navy Top Gun school crashed short of the runaway at NAS Miramar, north of San Diego, California. The cause of the crash was loss of power to the engine. The pilot, an instructor in the Top Gun school, ejected safely.

1990

• 23 January - Mid-air collision between two Blue Angels F/A-18 aircraft during a practice session at El Centro. One airplane, Angel Number 2, BuNo 161524, piloted by Capt. Chase Moseley (ejected) was destroyed and the other, Angel Number 1, badly damaged but managed to land safely. Both pilots survived unharmed.
• 12 February - A USMC pilot died and a reconnaissance observer was hurt when they ejected almost simultaneously from separate aircraft during training missions at the Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. Capt. Thomas Kolb, 28, of San Diego, California, was killed after ejecting from his AV-8B Harrier II, based at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, which crashed in a remote area. Aerial observer Capt. Jeffrey P. Schade, of Southhold, New York, ejected from OV-10 Bronco, suffering minor injuries. The Bronco landed safely.
• 30 May - Two USAF Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair IIs of the Air National Guard, collided in mid-air and crashed in a "ball of flame" over northwestern Iowa near Spencer, Iowa, both pilots and a civilian passenger ejected safely.
• 6 November - Crew of an US Navy A-6E Intruder, '506', of VA-176, suffering engine fire, aim bomber away from Virginia Beach, Virginia oceanfront before ejecting just after takeoff from NAS Oceana, Virginia's Runway 5. Bomber comes down at 1015 hrs. in the Atlantic Ocean ~.75 miles offshore, after just clearing the Station One Hotel, on-shore breeze carries crew inland about three blocks from the beach, one landing in a tree, the other in a courtyard of a condominium, suffering only cuts and bruises. Aircraft, on routine training mission, was unarmed. Officials did not identify the crew, but said the pilot was a 29-year old lieutenant, and the bombardier-navigator was a 34-year old lieutenant commander, both assigned to VA-176.
• December 6 - An MB-326 jet from the Italian Air Force crashes into a high school in Casalecchio di Reno, Italy. Twelve students are killed, 84 more are severely injured. The pilot ejected after losing control of the plane.

1991

• 24 January - A-7E Corsair II, BuNo 158830, 'AC 403', of VA-72 has the dubious distinction of being the last of the type in US Navy service to need a barricade landing aboard a carrier when the nose gear was damaged on catapult launch from the USS John F. Kennedy, CV-67, at start of mission 12.41 against a target in western Iraq, losing one tire. Pilot, Lt. Tom Dostie, succeeds in hooking 1-wire and aircraft snags safely in barricade. Since the A-7 type was about to be retired, airframe is stripped for parts and buried at sea 25 January with full military honors, but refuses to sink until strafed by air wing jets.
• 3 March - US Navy T-39 Sabreliner crashed at 1145 hrs. in a neighborhood ~.5 miles S of NAS Glenview, Illinois, killing three crew, but missing houses. No one on ground was injured and witnesses said the pilot appeared to intentionally avoid structures, the jet coming down 20 feet from homes.
• 21 March – Two US Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine planes are lost during a training mission off the San Diego coast. The crash occurs in a storm 60 miles SW of San Diego at 0230 hrs., as one plane flies to relieve the other, which had been airborne for seven hours. Search-and-rescue workers discover wreckage from the downed planes but all 27 crewmen are lost. The two aircraft were assigned to Patrol Squadron 50, based at Moffett Naval Air Station in Mountain View.
• 5 June - A Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A, A21-041, of 75 Squadron, crashes 100 kilometres north east of Weipa, Queensland. The pilot was killed. The wreckage was found in July 1994.
• 29 October - A Royal Australian Air Force Boeing 707-368C, A20-103, c.n 21103/905, stalled and crashed into the sea near RAAF Base East Sale, VIC, Australia killing all five crew. The crash was attributed to a simulation of asymmetric flight resulting in a sudden and violent departure from controlled flight.
• 30 November - During routine training mission, pilot Lt. Michael Young, 28, bailed out of his disabled USAF A-7D of the 180th TFG, Ohio Air National Guard, based at Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio, over the coast of Michigan's Thumb area. He landed in Lake Huron, and was dragged 12 miles in his parachute by winds before being lost and presumed drowned. The jet impacted in a wooded area near Port Hope, Michigan. Rescuers were unable to reach pilot at the speed he was being dragged, and survival was unlikely in the 38-degree water.

1992

• 6 February - A Kentucky Air National Guard C-130B, 58-0732, c.n. 3527, of the 165th Tactical Airlift Squadron, stalls and crashes into the JoJo's restaurant and Drury Inn while practicing touch and go maneuvers at the Evansville, Indiana Airport. All five crew members and nine people on the ground were killed. Several others were injured.
• April - A Marine Corps CH-46 suffers a catastrophic explosion and crashes into the Red Sea, killing four Marines including the pilot and injuring eight Marines.
• 20 July - A V-22 Osprey prototype, BuNo 163914, catches fire and falls into the Potomac River at MCAS Quantico, Virginia, USA, killing 5 crew members in front of an audience of high-ranking US government officials; this is the first of a series of fatal accidents involving the controversial tiltrotor aircraft.

1993

• 27 April – A Zambian Air Force DHC-5 Buffalo crashed shortly after takeoff from Libreville, Gabon. One engine caught fire and failed; the tired pilot then shut down the wrong engine, causing a complete loss of power during the climb and leading to a crash 500 metres offshore. The plane was carrying the Zambia national football team to a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Senegal. All 30 on board, including 18 players, the coach, and team support staff, were killed.
• 8 August - A JAS 39 Gripen crashed on the central Stockholm island of Långholmen, near the Västerbron bridge, during a slow speed manoeuver during a display over the Stockholm Water Festival. The same pilot as in the 1989 incident ejected safely. Despite large crowds standing by watching, no one on the ground was seriously injured. This crash was caused by a PIO.

1994

B-52H 61-0026 Czar 52 about to crash. Note that the co-pilot's hatch has been blown in a failed attempt to eject.

• 23 March - Green Ramp Disaster A mid-air collision between a C-130 Hercules, 68-10942, and a F-16D Fighting Falcon, 88-0171, causes a ground crash between the F-16 and a C-141 Starlifter, 66-0173. This propelled the wreckage of the F-16 into paratroopers preparing for a practice drop killing 24 and injuring many more. The C-130 landed safely.
• 14 April - Two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters are mistakenly shot down by USAF F-15 Eagle jets while patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq, killing 26 personnel in what is known as the Black Hawk Incident.
• 2 June - A Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC.2 helicopter, ZD576, 'G', of Odiham Wing, crashes near Campbeltown, Scotland, killing 29 crew and passengers, including several top officials of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• 24 June - 'Czar 52', a USAF B-52H-170-BW Stratofortress, 61-0026, crashes during an airshow practice at Fairchild AFB. After having rehearsed the maneuvers profile that in itself was dangerous to fly in a B-52, the aircraft came into land. Due to a KC-135 Stratotanker still being on the runway, the aircraft was required to make a 'go around'. After beginning a 360-degree turn left, the aircraft exceeded 90 degrees angle of bank, stalled and crashed into the ground. All four aircrew members were killed in the crash.
• 24 October - US Navy F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 160390, of VF-213 crashed on approach to the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72, operating 40 miles (65 km.) off the Southern California coast, killing Lt. Kara Hultgreen, the first female Tomcat-qualified pilot in the Navy. RIO Lt. Matthew P. Klemish ejected and was rescued. Due to low-speed rolling turn, the ejections were on the edge of the seat capabilities, and Hultgreen's did not have time to fully sequence. Her body was recovered by a Navy salvage team, still strapped into her seat less than 100 yards (90 m.) from her F-14 on the seabed.

1995

• 21 May-22 May - Historic B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons, abandoned in 1947 and recently restored to flying condition after a number of highly calamitous setbacks, is severely damaged by fire while attempting to take off from a frozen lakebed in Greenland. Its remains are abandoned to sink into the melting ice.
• 2 September - RAF Kinloss Wing Nimrod MR.2, XV239, crashes into Lake Ontario, at Toronto, Canada during the 46th Canadian National Exhibition International airshow, killing all seven crew of 120 Squadron.
• 22 September – A USAF E-3B Sentry, 77-0354, c/n 21554, of the 961st AACS, 552nd ACW, crashes shortly after take off from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, when a flock of Canadian snow geese were ingested by its engines. All 26 crew members die, including 2 Canadian air crew members. This was the first loss of an E-3 since the type entered service in 1977.

1996

• 3 April - A USAF Boeing CT-43, 73-1149 (c/n 20696), on an official trade mission, crashed on approach to Dubrovnik Airport, Croatia, killing United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and 34 other people.
• 12 June – Two Australian Army S-70A Black Hawk helicopters collide during a night training exercise near Townsville, Queensland, killing 18 soldiers.
• 15 July – At approximately 1803 hrs., a Belgian Lockheed C-130H Hercules, registration number CH-06, c/n 4473, crashed at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands after bird strikes stopped three engines. A total of 34 people lost their lives as a result of the accident, and seven people were seriously injured.

1997

• 4 February - Two Israeli CH-53 Sea Stallion Yas'ur 2000s, 357 and 903, collide in darkness near the remote She'ar Yeshuv kibbutz, over northern Israel at ~1900 hrs. in a storm, killing 73 Israel Defense Forces soldiers. See 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster.
• 13 September - German Air Force Tupolev 154M, 11+02, of 1 Staffel/FBS, used for Open Skies treaty verification, collided with a US Air Force C-141B Starlifter, 65-9405, of the 305th AMW, about 120 km (75 miles) west of the coast of Namibia over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 24 aboard. Accident investigations by both countries, released 31 March 1998, found that the Tu-154 was flying at the wrong altitude, 35,000 feet (11,600 m.) instead of 39,000 feet (12,900 m.), and was thus primarily at fault. Contributory factor was chronically poor ATC in the area.

1998

• 3 February - A U.S. Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 163045, 'CY-02', callsign Easy 01, of VMAQ-2, struck a cable supporting a gondola in Cavalese. The cable was severed and 20 people in the cabin plunged over 80 metres to their deaths. The plane had wing and tail damage but was able to return to the base.
• 21 February – A Sudan Air Force Antonov An-32 overshoots the runway and crashes into a river near Nasir, Sudan killing 27 of the 57 people on board.
• 29 March – A Peruvian Air Force Antonov An-32, FAP-388/OB-1388, carrying villagers affected by floods, crashes in Piura, Peru after engine failure. Of the 55 people on board, 22 are killed.
• 5 May – A Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737-282, FAP-351, c/n 23041, line number 962, chartered from Occidental Petroleum, crashes at ~2130 hrs. during poor weather near Andoas, Peru killing 75 of the 88 people on board.
• 12 May – A Mauritanian Air Force Antonov An-24B, RA-12973, c/n 9346505, crashes near Néma, Mauritania during a sandstorm killing 39 of the 42 people on board.
• 25 May – A Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force Yakovlev Yak-40, RDPL-34001, '001', c/n 9431835, crashes into a mountain during heavy rain killing all of the 26 on board, including Lt. Gen. Dao Trong Lich, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Peoples' Army.

1999

• 21 January – A Nicaraguan Air Force Antonov An-26, 126, c/n 14206, crashes into a mountain near Bluefields, Nicaragua killing all 28 on board.
• 21 January - Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR.1 ZA330 crashed into a Cessna 152, G-BPZX near Mattersley Nottinghamshire. In the Air Accident Report 3/2000 the conclusion was none of the pilots saw each other in time to take avoiding action. Both crew of the Tornado Flight Lieutenant Greg Hurst and Sottotenete Matteo Di Carlo as well as the pilot and passenger in the Cessna were killed.
• 7 March – An Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 crashes upon landing in New Delhi, India during poor weather. All 19 people on board are killed.
• 18 April - Royal Australian Air Force F-111G, A8-291, of 6 Sqn., crashes about 2230 hrs. while on exercises in Malaysia. Believed to have hit one of two peaks on small island Pulua Aur, off the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, and then crashed into the South China Sea. The two crew, Sqn. Ldr. Steve Hobbs and Flt. Lt. Anthony Short, are killed.
• 27 May - An Indian Air Force HAL MiG-27L of 9 Wolfpack Sqn. suffers flame-out, fails to get relight, over Hunzi Ghund, Pakistan, during Kargil conflict. The MiG-27 pilot, Flt Lt K. Nachiketa successfully ejected at 1045 hrs., and he was captured by Pakistani ground forces as a POW. Pakistan claimed it as a shoot-down.
• 27 May - An Indian Air Force MiG-21MF, C-1539, of 17 Golden Arrows Sqn., is shot down by a Pakistani FIM-92 Stinger while searching for downed MiG-27 pilot during the Kargil conflict. Aircraft comes down at 1105 hrs., some 7.5 miles (12 km.) inside occupied Kashmir. Although pilot Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja ejected safely, Pakistan claimed he had been killed. After his body was returned May 28, "initial examination found bullet wounds which suggested he had been shot after ejecting. This was the first time since 1971 that India had lost an aircraft to hostile fire."
• 28 May - An Indian Air Force Mi-17 Hip helicopter is shot down by Pakistan air defence units using an FIM-92 Stinger missile during the Kargil conflict. Four IAF personnel were killed.
• 12 June - Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MK-1 demonstrator '01' with vectored thrust crashes on opening day of the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport. At the completion of a downward spiralling maneuver, the tail contacted the grass surface. With almost no forward speed the fighter was able to pull away from the ground, wings level, with an up pitch of 10-15 degrees and climb to ~150 feet (46 meters), with the right jet nozzle deflected fully up and flames engulfing the left engine. Sukhoi test pilot Vyacheslav Averynov initiated ejection with navigator Vladimir Shendrikh departing the aircraft first. The Zvezda K-36D-3.5 ejection seats work perfectly and both crew descend on a taxiway unhurt. The Su-30 impacted some distance from the crew. Video of this accident is widely available on the internet.
• 10 August - A Pakistan Navy Breguet Atlantic, believed to be serialled '91', c/n 33, of 29 Squadron, is shot down by Indian Air Force jets, citing airspace violation. Dubbed the Atlantique Incident, it raises tensions between India and Pakistan.
• 20 September - A Swedish Air Force JAS-39 Gripen, 39156, '56', of F7 Wing, 2nd Sqn., crashes into Lake Vänern at about 1430 hrs. during an air-to-air combat exercise. Aircraft sank in about 260 feet of water (80 meters). Pilot ejected safely and was recovered by Hkp 10 SAR helicopter. The accident was caused by a design flaw in the plane's control system, rendering it in a stalled mode after passing another plane's vortex. This was the first loss of a Gripen since the type became operational.
• 10 December – A United States Air Force C-130E Hercules, 63-7854, of 61st Airlift Squadron, 463rd Airlift Group, crashes during landing at Ahmed Al Jaber air base, Kuwait City, Kuwait killing three of the 94 people on board. Investigation report, released 31 March 2000, blamed crew complacency and failure to follow governing directives during approach to the runway, failing to monitor instruments, a critical function for night flying in reduced visibility.

See also

• List of C-130 Hercules crashes

External links

• [1] AVIATION WEEK
• PlaneCrashInfo.com