United States Air Force - USAF (since 1947)

In preparation for the 1994 Fairchild Airshow, the Pilot Lt Col Arthur A. "Bud" Holland was again selected as the command pilot for the B-52 demonstration flight. On 15 June 1994, Holland briefed the new wing commander, Colonel William Brooks, on the proposed flight plan. Holland's demonstration profile violated numerous regulations, including steep bank angles, low-altitude passes, and steep pitch attitudes. Brooks ordered Holland not to exceed 45° bank angle or 25° pitch attitude during the demonstration. During the first practice session, on 17 June, Holland repeatedly violated these orders. Brooks witnessed this, but took no action. Pellerin flew with Holland on that flight and reported to Brooks that, "the profile looks good to him; looks very safe, well within parameters." The next practice flight on 24 June ended with the fatal crash. The demonstration profile designed by Holland included a 360° turn around Fairchild's control tower, a maneuver which he had not attempted in previous air show demonstrations. During the final flight, Holland performed a series of 60° bank turns and a 68° pitch climb in violation of Brooks' orders. There is no evidence to suggest that either McGeehan or Wolff attempted to intervene as Holland carried out these dangerous maneuvers. Pellerin was originally scheduled to fly in this mission, as he had done on the 17 June flight, but he was unavailable for the 24 June flight and Wolff was selected as the replacement aircrew member. Due to the short notice of his assignment to the mission, Wolff did not participate in the pre-flight briefing and boarded the aircraft after the engines were started. He was therefore unaware of the planned mission profile and had no opportunity to raise any objections before take-off. All of the four aircrew involved in the crash had only limited flying time in the months before the crash. It would appear that none of them had noticed that the aircraft had stalled until shortly before impact, as indicated by a failure to apply standard recovery techniques to the aircraft once it entered the stall. The investigation reported that even if the proper stall recovery techniques had been applied, it was unlikely that the accident could have been prevented as the aircraft was already flying too low to be recovered.
Crew:
Lt Col Arthur A. "Bud" Holland, pilot,
Lt Col Mark C. McGeehan, copilot,
Col Robert E. Wolff, observer,
Lt Col Kenneth "Ken" Huston, operations officer.

Parked at Pope AFB, the Starlifter was ready to embark its passengers. About 500 paratroopers were around the aircraft. On final approach to runway 23, at an altitude of 300 feet, an USAF Lockheed C-130E Hercules registered 68-10492 collided with a USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon (88-0171) that was approaching the same runway to land. The crew of the C-130 was able to land safely while both pilots on board the F-16 ejected before the fighter crashed on the parked C-141. Several explosion occurred and 23 soldiers who were already on board were killed while 80 others were injured, some seriously. The aircraft was destroyed by fire.

En route from Mombasa to Mogadishu, while in cruising altitude over the Indian Ocean, the crew contacted ATC and declared an emergency following an explosion in the cargo compartment. The crew initiated an emergency descent and elected to divert to the nearest airport when control was lost. The aircraft crashed in the sea about 200 metres offshore, some 7 km from Malindi. Six crew members were rescued while eight others were killed.

The aircraft departed McChord AFB on an air refuelling mission over Montana. While cruising at an altitude of 25,000 feet by night, the aircraft collided under unknown circumstances with a second USAF Lockheed C-141B-LM Starlifter registered 66-0142, carrying six crew members and taking part to the same mission. Both aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent, disintegrated in the air and crashed about 14 km north of Harlem. All 13 occupants in both aircraft were killed.

The aircraft departed McChord AFB on an air refuelling mission over Montana. While cruising at an altitude of 25,000 feet by night, the aircraft collided under unknown circumstances with a second USAF Lockheed C-141B-LM Starlifter registered 65-0255, carrying seven crew members and taking part to the same mission. Both aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent, disintegrated in the air and crashed about 14 km north of Harlem. All 13 occupants in both aircraft were killed.

The crew departed Martinsburg-Eastern West Virginia-Shepherd Field for a local training flight. While flying at low height, the four engine aircraft struck power cables and crashed onto a house located 3 km northwest of Berkeley Springs. All six crew members were killed while the unique person in the house was slightly injured.

The Sherpa departed Fort Rucker-Cairns AAF on a training flight, carrying three crew members who were supposed to test the aircraft in special configuration. Two hours and 45 minutes into the flight, while cruising at an altitude of 5,336 feet in good weather conditions, the aircraft became unstable and rolled to the right to an angle of 12° then to the left to an angle of 35°. It entered an uncontrolled descent before crashing in an open field located 4 miles north of Colquitt, bursting into flames. All three occupants were killed. It was determined that control was lost while the aircraft' speed was 89 knots. Originally, the crew was supposed to simulate an engine failure at the altitude of 10,000 feet but apparently encountered problems as the aircraft' speed was dropping by the order of one knot per second before it became unstable. At the time of the accident, the total weight of the aircraft and its CofG were within limits.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Pope AFB. Apparently following a wrong approach configuration, the aircraft landed too far down the runway and was unable to stop within the remaining distance. It overran, lost its undercarriage and came to rest, broken in two. All 14 occupants were injured.

The four engine aircraft departed Pope AFB on a training flight with nine crew members on board. In unknown circumstances, the airplane went out of control and crashed in the Blewett Falls Lake, about 80 km southwest of Pope AFB. All nine occupants were killed.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Evansville-William H. Dress Airport on behalf of the Kentucky National Guard, consisting of touch-and-go maneuvers. On approach to runway 22, the crew was instructed by ATC to initiate a go-around for unknown reasons. The crew increased engine power and climbed to a height of 1,500 feet when the aircraft entered a nose down attitude, plunged and crashed onto an hotel located 4,800 feet short of runway 22 threshold. The aircraft, the hotel and a restaurant were destroyed. All five crew members as well as 11 people on the hotel/restaurant were killed. A police officer who was seriously injured in the accident died from his injuries 10 days later.