Athens - Madrid - McGuire

On August 28, 1973 at 09:45 PM, Athens - Madrid - McGuire experienced a crash involving Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, operated by United States Air Force - USAF, with the event recorded near Hueva Castile-La Mancha.

The flight was categorized as military and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a mountains crash site.

25 people were known to be on board, 24 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 96.0%.

Crew on board: 8, crew fatalities: 7, passengers on board: 17, passenger fatalities: 17, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The C-141 departed Athens for a night-time flight to Madrid, the first leg of a flight back to McGuire AFB. The crew were cleared for an ILS approach to Torrejon's runway 23. Weather was reported as 20,000 foot overcast, with 10 NM visibility. During the descent the crew forgot to use the Descent Checklist. Thus, the crew had failed to set their altimeters from 29.92" to the local altimeter setting of 30.17". Additionally, they did not turn on the radar altimeter. While at FL60 the crew was given a clearance to a lower altitude. Because of heavy radio traffic, the clearance was garbled. They were not sure if the controller had cleared them down to 5000 or 3000 feet. They agreed that it must have been 3000 feet. They read back "three thousand feet", but the controller failed to notice the error. When reporting "passing 5000 for 3000" to another controller, the error again was not noticed. Nearing 3000 feet, the navigator noticed a hill ahead and above their altitude, but the pilot reassured him that "everything looks clear ahead", with the lights of the air base visible in the valley below. At an altitude of 3050 feet, at a speed of 250 kts, the airplane impacted terrain near the edge of a plateau, 40 km east of the Torrejón Air Force Base. It became airborne again, rolled over and disintegrated in a field. The navigator survived while 24 other occupants were killed. Crew: Cpt Clinton Clifford Corbin, pilot, † Cpt Thomas R. Dietz, pilot, † 1st Lt William A. Kuhn, copilot, † T/Sgt Edward Peter Babcock, flight engineer, † T/Sgt Donald R. Wells, flight engineer, † Maj Friedrich Hugo Lamers, navigator, † 1st Lt William Haskel Ray, navigator T/Sgt Sidney Nathaniel Hillsman, load master. † Passengers: Cpl Edward Anthony Fanelli, Lt Col Austin Frederick Balkman Teresa Ann Wilcox T2c Donald Lee Rhodes Charles 'Chuck' Edward Hyatt William Moore O'Connor Cpl Sandra Rae Canton Sgt Barry Gale Canton Georgia Lord Charles Edward Lord Monteal Massey Frank Bullard Massey Janice Lynn Barron Clifford Elbert Barron Michael L. Merricks Robert L. Holloway Lt Chris Louis Katsetos.

Aircraft reference details include registration 63-8077, MSN 6008, year of manufacture 1963.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 40.4625°, -2.9608°.