Tachikawa air disaster
United States Air Force Douglas C-124A-DL Globemaster II · Engine failure; pilot error; loss of control
From Tachikawa Airfield (RJTC) to Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 129 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 129
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Douglas C-124A-DL Globemaster II
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C-124
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 51-0137
- Operator
- United States Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 129
- Route
- From Tachikawa Airfield (RJTC)To Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On June 18, 1953, a United States Air Force (USAF) Douglas C-124 Globemaster II aircraft crashed three minutes after takeoff from Tachikawa, Japan, killing all 129 people on board. At the time, the crash was the deadliest in aviation history.
Accident
The aircraft departed Tachikawa Air Base for Seoul at 16:31 JST. Just one minute into the flight, the aircraft's No. 1 (outer left) engine burst into flames. Voruz immediately shut down the engine and radioed that he was returning to Tachikawa. ATC asked if he wanted a ground-controlled approach (GCA), which Voruz accepted; during this, he could be heard shouting "Give me more power! Give me more power!" to the flight engineer. Ground control asked if he could maintain altitude; Voruz replied "Roger". However, as the pilots prepared to return to the airfield, the left wing stalled, causing the aircraft to roll to the left and enter a shallow, but unrecoverable, dive. In desperation, the pilots attempted to pull up, but in vain. Ground control asked if they were declaring emergency, but received no reply. At around 16:33, the flight disappeared from radar screens. At 16:34, the C-124 crashed into a watermelon patch about 3.5 miles from the airbase and exploded on impact.
Sergeant Frank J. Palyn, 434th ECB, who witnessed the crash from his car, said:
The two starboard engines reportedly kept running for some time after the crash.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
According to the accident report, the crash was caused by the pilots' improper flap usage and airspeed loss due to the failure of a port engine.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Tachikawa air disaster” (revision 1373681929, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Tachikawa air disaster
- Article
- Tachikawa air disaster
- Revision
- 1373681929 · 2026-09-07 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q11597894
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Tachikawa air disaster" (page 40496724, revision 1373681929)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.