Green ramp disaster
The March 23, 1994 Green Ramp plane crash occurred at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina , USA. 24 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division were killed and over a hundred soldiers were injured.
In this accident, a two-seater F-16D fighter jet of the US Air Force collided with a C-130E transport aircraft during a maneuver . The pilots of the fighter plane carried out a simulated flame explosion and collided with the elevator of the transporter. Both aircraft were approaching landing at a height of only 90 meters above the ground.
The pilots of the F-16 used the full thrust of the afterburner to take off, however the aircraft began to lose parts that fell on the runway. The crew of the jet fighter saved themselves with the ejection seat . The jet, however, flew in an arc to the “Green Ramp”, the large parking area at the western end of the west-eastern runway, and hit the ground there. The crew of the C-130 landed on the runway littered with aircraft parts without further incident.
The F-16, sliding along the ground, still had enough kinetic energy to destroy the right wing of a parked and refueled C-141B transport plane . The crew of the C-141 Starlifter prepared the aircraft is on a flight before, and out of the spreader ( Jump Master ) are no soldiers of the US Army were on board. The fireball of the fire, however, covered the area where numerous parachute soldiers were sitting and standing waiting for their deployment. 23 soldiers died in the accident. Two months after the crash, all surviving victims were able to leave the hospital, return to work, or continue recovery at home. However, one victim remained in critical condition and died over nine months later, on January 3, 1995.
The US Air Force investigation put the main culprit in the military and civilian air traffic controllers in charge of the air force base. However, a later investigation named a pilot error on the part of the F-16 crew as a contributory cause.