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C-141 Tail Number: 67-0006

On the ramp at Incirlik AB, Turkey 20 March 1971 Copyright: Greg Lasley
Source: contributed to C141 Heaven by Greg Lasley

On the ramp at Incirlik AB, Turkey 20 March 1971 Copyright: Greg Lasley
Source: contributed to C141 Heaven by Greg Lasley

On 28 August, 1976 this aircraft was destroyed in a weather related accident. After crossing the Atlantic ocean 67-0006 entered an area of thunderstorms and very heavy rains. It encountered severe turbulence and was destroyed in-flight. There were 14 crew members and 4 passengers on the aircraft..none survived.

The aircraft weather radar had been written up nine times during previous flights as being less than 100%, including a write up by the crew on the flight immediately preceding this crash that the radar was 'extremely week and unusable'. Maintenance performed a ground check of the radar before its last flight and signed off 'Ops Checks OK'. After takeoff, the crew determined the radar was still inoperative but decided to continue on to their destination, as the destination weather forecast at takeoff indicated no severe weather in the area.

The crew had trouble obtaining updated weather forecasts while crossing the Atlantic, and not only was their radar inoperative, but the primary radar on the ground was also acting up, so ATC was unable to provide weather avoidance information to help the crew. The ground controller reported to the crew "I can't see any way through it all".

Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft fall out of the clouds, already in pieces.

The burning crash site of 0006.
Source:USAF from an an unknown English source

This next series of photos was sent to C141Heaven in September 2005 by some folks who found a few slide trays full of slides that were used in crew training classes at Altus. They were cleaning out a desk and stumbled across these materials and sent them in for inclusion on the site.

In a terrible coincidence, another C-141, 67-0008, crashed the same day at Sonderstrom AB, Greenland.

On May 25^th, 2006, I received the following email from Noël Staples.

I recently took this photograph of the memorial stone commemorating the loss of Aircraft 67-0006 with all crew and passengers on 28 Aug 1976 in isolated fenland near the Cambridgeshire village of Thorney Toll in the UK.



Noël Staples

PS: I live in Peterborough not far from the crash site and often follow the remote road where the crash site is because it is so peaceful and free of traffic, although exceedingly bumpy.

In December 2008 C141Heaven received the following note from Francis Tower:

I was the weather forecaster on duty 28 Aug, 1976 when both 67-0008 and 67-0006 crashed. We first got the call on 0008 and began our checklists for an aircraft accident. As you can imagine, it got very busy and noisy. It seem like 45 minutes later one of the flight controllers got a call regarding 0006. He shouted out to the commander that he has a report of a C141 crash. The commander shouted back "We already have the Greenland crash".

"Sir", he replied, this one is in England".

As the weather flight follower it was my job to keep the flight updated on enroute weather. So close to England I wasn't able to contact the aircraft through Mildenhall and update the weather forecast.

To this day I feel sorrow for all crew and passengers on both flights.

Concerning 0008, the speculation in the command post from the experienced C141 pilots was that flying into Sondrestrom and not having landed there before the pilots view (because of the hump in the runway) was of the runway suddenly ending at the base of the mountains. The crew could have panicked and started a go around with insufficient air speed to clear the enclosing mountains.

Francis Tower
Capt, USAF Ret.

Last Updated: Saturday, August 8, 2009 05:21 pm

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