In days of old>>>
The
1966 Palomares B-52 crash, or the
Palomares incident, occurred on 17 January 1966, when a
B-52G bomber of the
United States Air Force's
Strategic Air Command collided with a
KC-135 tanker during
mid-air refueling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the
Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.
We came in behind the tanker, and we were a little bit fast, and we started to overrun him a little bit. There is a procedure they have in refueling where if the boom operator feels that you're getting too close and it's a dangerous situation, he will call, "Break away, break away, break away." There was no call for a break away, so we didn't see anything dangerous about the situation. But all of a sudden, all hell seemed to break loose.