page_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1960–1974)
section_title: 1966
hierarchical_section_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1960–1974) / 1966
caption_attribution_description: English: The North American XB-70A Valkyrie (s/n 62-0207) after the collision, 8 June 1966. Other aircraft are: Northrop T-38A-15-NO (s/n 59-1601), McDonnell F-4B-15-MC (BuNo 150993), Lockheed F-104A-20-LO (aka F-104N) (s/n 56-813, exploding), and Northrop YF-5A-NO (s/n 59-4989). The XB-70 can be seen at the far left of the image, missing one of its vertical stabilisers, while the large fireball is the F-104 Starfighter it collided with.
context_page_description: The items in this list are grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included, except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
context_section_description: 3 January
  Third (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5923, suffers major landing gear and fuselage damage during landing on 14th Cat II flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California, having logged only 14:12 hrs. Cat II flight time. Air Force decides to use wing from this airframe to repair XC-142A No. 2, 62–5922, which suffers major damage on 19 October 1965, other useful items are salvaged from airframe no. 3, and the cannibalized fuselage is scrapped in the summer of 1966.
  8 January
  A USAF Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 51-2611, c/n 10600, en route from Windsor Locks-Bradley International Airport, Connecticut to Binghamton Airport, New York, suffers an uncontained engine failure. The crew decides to bail out. The first crew member gets out at an altitude of ~2000 feet. The captain and co-pilot were not able to exit in time. The airplane descends and crashes into a lakefront house near Scranton, Pennsylvania, also killing a boy on the ground.
  17 January 
  A Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 58-0256, of the 68th Bomb Wing out of Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, collides with a KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 61-0273, c/n 18180, flying boom during aerial refueling near Palomares, Almería, breaking bomber's back. Seven crew members are killed in the crash, two eject safely, and two of the B-52's Mark 28 nuclear bombs rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore in deep trench. Two of the recovered weapons are exhibited at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  17 January
  Two crew of a Republic F-105F Thunderchief based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, escape injury when the engine of the fighter-bomber in which they are engaged in a photo-chase mission catches fire, forcing them to eject. The airframe impacts in East Bay, near Tyndall AFB, Florida at 1008 hrs. Pilot Capt. James D. Clendenen and photographer S/Sgt. J. G. Cain are recovered from the water by a Tyndall base helicopter.
  17 January
  A Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star on a night mission crashes and burns in a wooded area 11 miles NW of Eglin AFB, killing both crew. According to the base information officer, the wreckage was located in a densely wooded area which made the approach of rescue vehicles difficult. Killed while flying (KWF) were Capt. Robert D. Freeman, 30, of Lindsey, Oklahoma, and 2nd Lt. Roger A. Carr, 26, of Ames, Iowa. Both were residents of Fort Walton Beach, Florida and were assigned to the Air Proving Ground Center.
  25 January
  Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7952, Article 2003, crashes near Tucumcari, New Mexico during test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Bill Weaver survives, but RSO Jim Zwayer KWF.
  28 February 
  NASA astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett, original Gemini 9 crew, are killed when their Northrop T-38A-50-NO Talon, 63-8181, N901NA, crashes into a building while attempting to land in fog at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri.
  6 March
  The crash of a Grumman S-2 Tracker moments after take-off from Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, kills all four U.S. Navy crew on board. A military spokesman said that the twin-engined anti-submarine warfare plane crashed and burned "after climbing to some 100-feet. Wreckage was spread over a wide area about one mile south of the base." One crew member attempted to eject, and his seat and parachute were found a few yards from the wreckage. The other three crew were in the wreckage when rescue units arrived. Identity of the victims was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
  23 March
  First prototype LTV YA-7A Corsair II, BuNo 152580, rolls inverted while landing at Naval Air Facility China Lake, California, and crashes on golf course ~3 miles SE of approach end of the primary runway. Vought test pilot John Omvig was doing touch and goes and on the last one the A-7 began to roll and he ejected just before it rolled 90 degrees, with extremely low parachute deployment. The cause was pilot error when the hydraulic system was s
caption: XB-70 62-0207 following the midair collision on 8 June 1966 with Joe Walker's F-104N tumbling in flames in foreground.
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