Torrejon AB, Spain/1973
Chuck married during his last tour in Greece. They were both killed in a C-141 crash on the way back to the states to meet his family. The following are the details of that fatal crash:
Synopsis: During descent for a night GCA approach, the mishap crew misunderstood a descent clearance. Due to communications difficulties, they were unable to confirm the clearance, so accepted what they thought they heard. The aircraft impacted level terrain in a slight descent and was destroyed. Seven crew and 17 passengers were killed. A navigator was thrown clear and survived.
The aircrew departed McGuire AFB for Athens Greece , in mid-afternoon on a planned 23 hour crew duty day, with two enroute stops prior to Athens . The crew arrived in Athens , in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day sightseeing. They retired to their non air-conditioned hotel for a few hours before doing more sightseeing in the morning. When they departed Athens , that afternoon, on another augmented day back to home station, most were already tired.
28 August was the night of the new moon. The moon had set that evening at 1946 hours Madrid Time. Approaching Torrejon, some hours later, the crew started an enroute descent, for an ILS approach to runway 23 at Torrejon. Weather was reported as 20,000 foot overcast, with 10 NM visibility. During the descent, the pilot noticed that the crew had missed the "Descent Checklist", but became distracted by a radio call and forgot to request it later. The omission went undetected by the rest of the crew.
While level at FL60, the crew was given a clearance to a lower altitude, but because of heavy radio traffic, the clearance was garbled. Although the crew was unsure of whether the controller had cleared them to 5000? or 3000?, they agreed between them that it must have been 3000?. They read back "three thousand feet", but the controller missed the error and switched them to the final controller. They again reported "passing 5000 for 3000", but this controller also failed to hear the error. Nearing 3000 feet, the navigator noticed a hill ahead and above their altitude, but the pilot reassured him that "everything looks clear ahead".
