1953 Boeing KC-97 accident of Boeing
Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker · The 1953 Boeing KC-97 accident (Boeing) occurred on 23 April 1953
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 10
- 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
- General aviation
Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker
- Aircraft type
- Boeing KC-97
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Boeing
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)To King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1953 Boeing KC-97 accident (Boeing) occurred on 23 April 1953. On that day, Boeing carried out a test flight with a Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker military tanker aircraft before it was to be handed over to the United States Air Force. During the test flight a serious accident occurred when the aircraft crashed following an engine failure. Of eleven people on board, one person was killed.
Accident sequence
A test flight was to be carried out with the aircraft before its handover to the United States Air Force. In flight an engine exploded, damaging parts of the tail. When the occupants realised that a crash was imminent, they parachuted out of the badly damaged aircraft. A 24-year-old Boeing mechanic, who was on board as an unauthorised passenger and for whom no parachute was available, remained in the aircraft. He died in the crash, which occurred about 112 kilometres southwest of Seattle.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing KC-97 von Boeing 1953” (revision 252303648, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing KC-97 von Boeing 1953
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 252303648 · 2025-01-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q130543308
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing KC-97 von Boeing 1953" (page 13251073, revision 252303648), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): Boeing flying its own test flight before delivering the tanker to the Air Force: a manufacturer's test flight, general aviation. The article: "Boeing carried out a test flight with a Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker military tanker aircraft before it was to be handed over to the United States Air Force"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.