Cpl. JAMES H. BROCK, son of John C. Brock, Birmingham, Ohio.
Date / Time: Friday, June 25, 1965 / 1:46 a.m.
Operator / Flight No.: United States Air Force / Military
Location: Near Irvine, Calif.
Details and Probable Cause: The westbound military flight, utilizing a Boeing C-135A Stratolifter transport (60-0373), originated at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey and was bound for the island of Okinawa, via El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, and Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Carrying 72 U.S. Marines Corps members and manned by a crew of 12 Air Force servicemen, the aircraft, the military derivative of the four-engine Boeing B707 jetliner, took off at 1:35 a.m. into thick fog and light drizzle from Runway 34R at El Toro.
The aircraft had reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet when it failed to make a prescribed left turn and continued on its northward course, smashing into Loma Ridge while flying at an estimated 300 mph.
The jet impacted the 1,300-foot hill at a point approximately 150 feet below its crest and disintegrated into flames, scattering wreckage and bodies over a mile-wide portion of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch. All 84 persons aboard were killed.
Due to the heavy fog and low overcast, the crash site wasn't located by search and rescue members until over four hours after the plane went down. The exact cause of the crash remains undetermined.
The worst aviation disaster in Orange County history.
-------------------------------------------------------------
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
JET CRASHES NEAR EL TORO.
84 DIE IN CALIFORNIA'S WORST AIR DISASTER.
PLANE FAILS TO MAKE LEFT TURN.
Marines Believed Bound for Viet Nam.
El Toro Marine Air Station, Calif. (UPI) -- A mililtary jet transport, unaccountably failing to make a scheduled left turn, plunged into a fog-shrouded mountain and exploded after takeoff early Friday, killing all 84 men aboard -- including 72 Marines believed bound for Viet Nam.
There were no survivors in one of the worst military air disasters in peacetime history. It also was California's worst air disaster.
The C135 air transport, military conuterpart of the commercial Boeing 707 jetliner, smashed into a mountain 4 1/2 miles directly north of the end of the runway from which it took off moments before.
Turn Scheduled.
But Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) inspector ELMER PARKS said the flight plan called for the Air Force jet to have made a left turn two miles after liftoff.
In aq news conference late Friday, PARKS would not disclose whether the tape recording of the final conversation between tower and pilot indicated why the airman did not make the specified turn.
The pilot, Capt. WILLIAM F. CORDELL, JR., was a veteran of 3,000 hours flying time.
PARKS also declined comment on whether any sabotage was suspected. He said an investigation would be completed within 10 days.
"There was no indication the pilot didn't know the flight pattern," PARKS said.
Below Normal Altitude.
Under normal conditions the aircraft would have been at an altitude of 4,000-4,500 feet about 4 1/2 miles from takeoff.
A Marine officer, declining to be identified, said if the plane "lacked power, and went into its bank it might have wiped out a part of Orange," a suburban community near El Toro. He speculated the pilot might have tried to avoid such a disaster by keeping the plane on a straight course.
Orange County Coroner DR. RAYMOND BRANDT said all 84 bodies have been recovered. Ten had been positively identified by late afternoon.
The powerful jet "completely broke up: when it hit the mountain at the 1,500-foot level, about 75 feet below the summit.
The largest single piece of wreckage was the flattened out cockpit area, about 10 feet in diameter. The pilot's body lay inside.
Loma Peak Turned Into Nightmare.
El Toro Marine Base -- The sun heated fog clung to the human and airplane debris littering the mountain top.
Boots, some of them with feet, were scattered about.
Papers, technical manuals, some with singed edges, personal letters, cards, and official envelopes containing travel orders lay in disorder in the mesquite that covered the top of Loma Peak except where it had been burned by the explosion of 8,000 gallons of plane fuel.
Scattered pieces of uniforms tallied with the report that 72 of the 84 victims were U. S. Marines en route to Okinawa, staging point for South Viet Nam. The other 12 were the Air Force plane crew.
The first man at the scene, Sgt. BILL HASTINGS of the Marine Air Rescue Squadron from El Toro, said his first reaction was to radio for salvage crews to clean up the wreckage.
"I just felt that no one could have survived this one ... it was just that bad ... When I walked up from where the chopper landed me, and into that scene I felt as though someone had kicked me in the stomach ..."
Shortly before noon Gen. HOWELL M. ESTES, commanding general of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Scott Field, Ill., arrived by jet. When he stepped from the T-39 sabreliner, he was wiping his tear-stained eyes. He looked hard hit.
"Those guys were the greatest," he said, "I'm just sick." He was visibly shaken when he returned from the crash scene.
In the bustling flight operations office at the Marine air field at El Toro, a girl, obviously not more than 20, appeared distraught.
A sergeant was talking to her. She looked down most of the time, but glanced up to say, "But they haven't notified me ....."
The sergeant looked away.
She asked, "What should I do?" She appeared ready to faint.
The sergeant called another Marine, "Get the chaplain."
The girl stared dazedly at the sergeant, "I love him and now, I know he's ... d .... gone. What'll I do? ... Yes, I know he was on the plane because he left late last night, and he was in the Third Marine Division ..."
The sergeant took her into the secluded recess of the weather station. As she went with him she nervously twisted the new rings on the third finger of her left hand.
Date / Time: Friday, June 25, 1965 / 1:46 a.m.
Operator / Flight No.: United States Air Force / Military
Location: Near Irvine, Calif.
Details and Probable Cause: The westbound military flight, utilizing a Boeing C-135A Stratolifter transport (60-0373), originated at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey and was bound for the island of Okinawa, via El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, and Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Carrying 72 U.S. Marines Corps members and manned by a crew of 12 Air Force servicemen, the aircraft, the military derivative of the four-engine Boeing B707 jetliner, took off at 1:35 a.m. into thick fog and light drizzle from Runway 34R at El Toro.
The aircraft had reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet when it failed to make a prescribed left turn and continued on its northward course, smashing into Loma Ridge while flying at an estimated 300 mph.
The jet impacted the 1,300-foot hill at a point approximately 150 feet below its crest and disintegrated into flames, scattering wreckage and bodies over a mile-wide portion of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch. All 84 persons aboard were killed.
Due to the heavy fog and low overcast, the crash site wasn't located by search and rescue members until over four hours after the plane went down. The exact cause of the crash remains undetermined.
The worst aviation disaster in Orange County history.
-------------------------------------------------------------
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
JET CRASHES NEAR EL TORO.
84 DIE IN CALIFORNIA'S WORST AIR DISASTER.
PLANE FAILS TO MAKE LEFT TURN.
Marines Believed Bound for Viet Nam.
El Toro Marine Air Station, Calif. (UPI) -- A mililtary jet transport, unaccountably failing to make a scheduled left turn, plunged into a fog-shrouded mountain and exploded after takeoff early Friday, killing all 84 men aboard -- including 72 Marines believed bound for Viet Nam.
There were no survivors in one of the worst military air disasters in peacetime history. It also was California's worst air disaster.
The C135 air transport, military conuterpart of the commercial Boeing 707 jetliner, smashed into a mountain 4 1/2 miles directly north of the end of the runway from which it took off moments before.
Turn Scheduled.
But Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) inspector ELMER PARKS said the flight plan called for the Air Force jet to have made a left turn two miles after liftoff.
In aq news conference late Friday, PARKS would not disclose whether the tape recording of the final conversation between tower and pilot indicated why the airman did not make the specified turn.
The pilot, Capt. WILLIAM F. CORDELL, JR., was a veteran of 3,000 hours flying time.
PARKS also declined comment on whether any sabotage was suspected. He said an investigation would be completed within 10 days.
"There was no indication the pilot didn't know the flight pattern," PARKS said.
Below Normal Altitude.
Under normal conditions the aircraft would have been at an altitude of 4,000-4,500 feet about 4 1/2 miles from takeoff.
A Marine officer, declining to be identified, said if the plane "lacked power, and went into its bank it might have wiped out a part of Orange," a suburban community near El Toro. He speculated the pilot might have tried to avoid such a disaster by keeping the plane on a straight course.
Orange County Coroner DR. RAYMOND BRANDT said all 84 bodies have been recovered. Ten had been positively identified by late afternoon.
The powerful jet "completely broke up: when it hit the mountain at the 1,500-foot level, about 75 feet below the summit.
The largest single piece of wreckage was the flattened out cockpit area, about 10 feet in diameter. The pilot's body lay inside.
Loma Peak Turned Into Nightmare.
El Toro Marine Base -- The sun heated fog clung to the human and airplane debris littering the mountain top.
Boots, some of them with feet, were scattered about.
Papers, technical manuals, some with singed edges, personal letters, cards, and official envelopes containing travel orders lay in disorder in the mesquite that covered the top of Loma Peak except where it had been burned by the explosion of 8,000 gallons of plane fuel.
Scattered pieces of uniforms tallied with the report that 72 of the 84 victims were U. S. Marines en route to Okinawa, staging point for South Viet Nam. The other 12 were the Air Force plane crew.
The first man at the scene, Sgt. BILL HASTINGS of the Marine Air Rescue Squadron from El Toro, said his first reaction was to radio for salvage crews to clean up the wreckage.
"I just felt that no one could have survived this one ... it was just that bad ... When I walked up from where the chopper landed me, and into that scene I felt as though someone had kicked me in the stomach ..."
Shortly before noon Gen. HOWELL M. ESTES, commanding general of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Scott Field, Ill., arrived by jet. When he stepped from the T-39 sabreliner, he was wiping his tear-stained eyes. He looked hard hit.
"Those guys were the greatest," he said, "I'm just sick." He was visibly shaken when he returned from the crash scene.
In the bustling flight operations office at the Marine air field at El Toro, a girl, obviously not more than 20, appeared distraught.
A sergeant was talking to her. She looked down most of the time, but glanced up to say, "But they haven't notified me ....."
The sergeant looked away.
She asked, "What should I do?" She appeared ready to faint.
The sergeant called another Marine, "Get the chaplain."
The girl stared dazedly at the sergeant, "I love him and now, I know he's ... d .... gone. What'll I do? ... Yes, I know he was on the plane because he left late last night, and he was in the Third Marine Division ..."
The sergeant took her into the secluded recess of the weather station. As she went with him she nervously twisted the new rings on the third finger of her left hand.
Cpl. JAMES H. BROCK, son of John C. Brock, Birmingham, Ohio.
Date / Time: Friday, June 25, 1965 / 1:46 a.m.
Operator / Flight No.: United States Air Force / Military
Location: Near Irvine, Calif.
Details and Probable Cause: The westbound military flight, utilizing a Boeing C-135A Stratolifter transport (60-0373), originated at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey and was bound for the island of Okinawa, via El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, and Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Carrying 72 U.S. Marines Corps members and manned by a crew of 12 Air Force servicemen, the aircraft, the military derivative of the four-engine Boeing B707 jetliner, took off at 1:35 a.m. into thick fog and light drizzle from Runway 34R at El Toro.
The aircraft had reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet when it failed to make a prescribed left turn and continued on its northward course, smashing into Loma Ridge while flying at an estimated 300 mph.
The jet impacted the 1,300-foot hill at a point approximately 150 feet below its crest and disintegrated into flames, scattering wreckage and bodies over a mile-wide portion of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch. All 84 persons aboard were killed.
Due to the heavy fog and low overcast, the crash site wasn't located by search and rescue members until over four hours after the plane went down. The exact cause of the crash remains undetermined.
The worst aviation disaster in Orange County history.
-------------------------------------------------------------
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
JET CRASHES NEAR EL TORO.
84 DIE IN CALIFORNIA'S WORST AIR DISASTER.
PLANE FAILS TO MAKE LEFT TURN.
Marines Believed Bound for Viet Nam.
El Toro Marine Air Station, Calif. (UPI) -- A mililtary jet transport, unaccountably failing to make a scheduled left turn, plunged into a fog-shrouded mountain and exploded after takeoff early Friday, killing all 84 men aboard -- including 72 Marines believed bound for Viet Nam.
There were no survivors in one of the worst military air disasters in peacetime history. It also was California's worst air disaster.
The C135 air transport, military conuterpart of the commercial Boeing 707 jetliner, smashed into a mountain 4 1/2 miles directly north of the end of the runway from which it took off moments before.
Turn Scheduled.
But Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) inspector ELMER PARKS said the flight plan called for the Air Force jet to have made a left turn two miles after liftoff.
In aq news conference late Friday, PARKS would not disclose whether the tape recording of the final conversation between tower and pilot indicated why the airman did not make the specified turn.
The pilot, Capt. WILLIAM F. CORDELL, JR., was a veteran of 3,000 hours flying time.
PARKS also declined comment on whether any sabotage was suspected. He said an investigation would be completed within 10 days.
"There was no indication the pilot didn't know the flight pattern," PARKS said.
Below Normal Altitude.
Under normal conditions the aircraft would have been at an altitude of 4,000-4,500 feet about 4 1/2 miles from takeoff.
A Marine officer, declining to be identified, said if the plane "lacked power, and went into its bank it might have wiped out a part of Orange," a suburban community near El Toro. He speculated the pilot might have tried to avoid such a disaster by keeping the plane on a straight course.
Orange County Coroner DR. RAYMOND BRANDT said all 84 bodies have been recovered. Ten had been positively identified by late afternoon.
The powerful jet "completely broke up: when it hit the mountain at the 1,500-foot level, about 75 feet below the summit.
The largest single piece of wreckage was the flattened out cockpit area, about 10 feet in diameter. The pilot's body lay inside.
Loma Peak Turned Into Nightmare.
El Toro Marine Base -- The sun heated fog clung to the human and airplane debris littering the mountain top.
Boots, some of them with feet, were scattered about.
Papers, technical manuals, some with singed edges, personal letters, cards, and official envelopes containing travel orders lay in disorder in the mesquite that covered the top of Loma Peak except where it had been burned by the explosion of 8,000 gallons of plane fuel.
Scattered pieces of uniforms tallied with the report that 72 of the 84 victims were U. S. Marines en route to Okinawa, staging point for South Viet Nam. The other 12 were the Air Force plane crew.
The first man at the scene, Sgt. BILL HASTINGS of the Marine Air Rescue Squadron from El Toro, said his first reaction was to radio for salvage crews to clean up the wreckage.
"I just felt that no one could have survived this one ... it was just that bad ... When I walked up from where the chopper landed me, and into that scene I felt as though someone had kicked me in the stomach ..."
Shortly before noon Gen. HOWELL M. ESTES, commanding general of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Scott Field, Ill., arrived by jet. When he stepped from the T-39 sabreliner, he was wiping his tear-stained eyes. He looked hard hit.
"Those guys were the greatest," he said, "I'm just sick." He was visibly shaken when he returned from the crash scene.
In the bustling flight operations office at the Marine air field at El Toro, a girl, obviously not more than 20, appeared distraught.
A sergeant was talking to her. She looked down most of the time, but glanced up to say, "But they haven't notified me ....."
The sergeant looked away.
She asked, "What should I do?" She appeared ready to faint.
The sergeant called another Marine, "Get the chaplain."
The girl stared dazedly at the sergeant, "I love him and now, I know he's ... d .... gone. What'll I do? ... Yes, I know he was on the plane because he left late last night, and he was in the Third Marine Division ..."
The sergeant took her into the secluded recess of the weather station. As she went with him she nervously twisted the new rings on the third finger of her left hand.
Date / Time: Friday, June 25, 1965 / 1:46 a.m.
Operator / Flight No.: United States Air Force / Military
Location: Near Irvine, Calif.
Details and Probable Cause: The westbound military flight, utilizing a Boeing C-135A Stratolifter transport (60-0373), originated at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey and was bound for the island of Okinawa, via El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, and Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Carrying 72 U.S. Marines Corps members and manned by a crew of 12 Air Force servicemen, the aircraft, the military derivative of the four-engine Boeing B707 jetliner, took off at 1:35 a.m. into thick fog and light drizzle from Runway 34R at El Toro.
The aircraft had reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet when it failed to make a prescribed left turn and continued on its northward course, smashing into Loma Ridge while flying at an estimated 300 mph.
The jet impacted the 1,300-foot hill at a point approximately 150 feet below its crest and disintegrated into flames, scattering wreckage and bodies over a mile-wide portion of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch. All 84 persons aboard were killed.
Due to the heavy fog and low overcast, the crash site wasn't located by search and rescue members until over four hours after the plane went down. The exact cause of the crash remains undetermined.
The worst aviation disaster in Orange County history.
-------------------------------------------------------------
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
El Toro Marine Air Station, CA Air Disaster Kills 84, June 1965
June 26, 1965
JET CRASHES NEAR EL TORO.
84 DIE IN CALIFORNIA'S WORST AIR DISASTER.
PLANE FAILS TO MAKE LEFT TURN.
Marines Believed Bound for Viet Nam.
El Toro Marine Air Station, Calif. (UPI) -- A mililtary jet transport, unaccountably failing to make a scheduled left turn, plunged into a fog-shrouded mountain and exploded after takeoff early Friday, killing all 84 men aboard -- including 72 Marines believed bound for Viet Nam.
There were no survivors in one of the worst military air disasters in peacetime history. It also was California's worst air disaster.
The C135 air transport, military conuterpart of the commercial Boeing 707 jetliner, smashed into a mountain 4 1/2 miles directly north of the end of the runway from which it took off moments before.
Turn Scheduled.
But Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) inspector ELMER PARKS said the flight plan called for the Air Force jet to have made a left turn two miles after liftoff.
In aq news conference late Friday, PARKS would not disclose whether the tape recording of the final conversation between tower and pilot indicated why the airman did not make the specified turn.
The pilot, Capt. WILLIAM F. CORDELL, JR., was a veteran of 3,000 hours flying time.
PARKS also declined comment on whether any sabotage was suspected. He said an investigation would be completed within 10 days.
"There was no indication the pilot didn't know the flight pattern," PARKS said.
Below Normal Altitude.
Under normal conditions the aircraft would have been at an altitude of 4,000-4,500 feet about 4 1/2 miles from takeoff.
A Marine officer, declining to be identified, said if the plane "lacked power, and went into its bank it might have wiped out a part of Orange," a suburban community near El Toro. He speculated the pilot might have tried to avoid such a disaster by keeping the plane on a straight course.
Orange County Coroner DR. RAYMOND BRANDT said all 84 bodies have been recovered. Ten had been positively identified by late afternoon.
The powerful jet "completely broke up: when it hit the mountain at the 1,500-foot level, about 75 feet below the summit.
The largest single piece of wreckage was the flattened out cockpit area, about 10 feet in diameter. The pilot's body lay inside.
Loma Peak Turned Into Nightmare.
El Toro Marine Base -- The sun heated fog clung to the human and airplane debris littering the mountain top.
Boots, some of them with feet, were scattered about.
Papers, technical manuals, some with singed edges, personal letters, cards, and official envelopes containing travel orders lay in disorder in the mesquite that covered the top of Loma Peak except where it had been burned by the explosion of 8,000 gallons of plane fuel.
Scattered pieces of uniforms tallied with the report that 72 of the 84 victims were U. S. Marines en route to Okinawa, staging point for South Viet Nam. The other 12 were the Air Force plane crew.
The first man at the scene, Sgt. BILL HASTINGS of the Marine Air Rescue Squadron from El Toro, said his first reaction was to radio for salvage crews to clean up the wreckage.
"I just felt that no one could have survived this one ... it was just that bad ... When I walked up from where the chopper landed me, and into that scene I felt as though someone had kicked me in the stomach ..."
Shortly before noon Gen. HOWELL M. ESTES, commanding general of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Scott Field, Ill., arrived by jet. When he stepped from the T-39 sabreliner, he was wiping his tear-stained eyes. He looked hard hit.
"Those guys were the greatest," he said, "I'm just sick." He was visibly shaken when he returned from the crash scene.
In the bustling flight operations office at the Marine air field at El Toro, a girl, obviously not more than 20, appeared distraught.
A sergeant was talking to her. She looked down most of the time, but glanced up to say, "But they haven't notified me ....."
The sergeant looked away.
She asked, "What should I do?" She appeared ready to faint.
The sergeant called another Marine, "Get the chaplain."
The girl stared dazedly at the sergeant, "I love him and now, I know he's ... d .... gone. What'll I do? ... Yes, I know he was on the plane because he left late last night, and he was in the Third Marine Division ..."
The sergeant took her into the secluded recess of the weather station. As she went with him she nervously twisted the new rings on the third finger of her left hand.
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