Borja air crash
United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules · Collision with mountain
From Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN) to an unrecorded destination
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
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed C-130
- 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
- United States Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 18
- Route
- From Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN)To not recorded
Approximate · Estimated position: Borja, Zaragoza, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On 28 February 1984, a United States Air Force Hercules crashed in the municipal area of the Zaragoza town of Borja. It is the most serious military air accident on Spanish territory to date.
Accident
At around 19:30 on 28 February 1984, some 10 kilometres from the town of Borja, a United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules that had come from Frankfurt Air Base, and had left Zaragoza Air Base in the middle of the afternoon, was about to carry out a parachuting exercise in the area. A sudden change of course due to a snowstorm caused them to crash into the ridge of a mountain, two minutes from the planned drop point.
How the accident happened
At around 19:30 the United States military was going to carry out a parachuting exercise from a Hercules aircraft that took off from the from Zaragoza Air Base.
When the pilots saw that the presence of a mountain in their path, they tried to avoid the mountain but they were already upon it. The pilots ordered the paratroopers to jump into the void, seeing the situation that was unfolding. But although a door was open the paratroopers were unable to jump. The pilots came within 30 metres of clearing the mountain, but at the speed the aircraft was travelling (200 km/h) they could not.
When the aircraft crashed it broke in two, the parts of the aircraft sliding down the mountain, the tail remaining intact and the rest of the aircraft burnt out.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente aéreo de Borja” (revision 158402062, 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
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente aéreo de Borja
- Article
- Accidente aéreo de Borja
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 158402062 · 2024-02-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q19060878
- 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
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente aéreo de Borja" (page 6588784, revision 158402062), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 Spanish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.