C-135 crash near Santa Ana
U.S. Air Force Boeing C-135 Stratolifter · Probably crew error
From McGuire (New Jersey, USA) to Okinawa (Japan)
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
- 84 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
Boeing C-135 Stratolifter
- Aircraft type
- Boeing C-135
- 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
- 60-0373
- Operator
- US Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 84
- Route
- From McGuire (New Jersey, USA)To Okinawa (Japan)
Approximate · Estimated position: Santa Ana, California, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The C-135 crash near Santa Ana was an aviation accident that occurred on Friday 25 June 1965 in the vicinity of Santa Ana involving a US Air Force Boeing C-135A Stratolifter, killing, according to various sources, from 83 to 85 people.
Crash
The aircraft was transferring the 85th Marine Corps and was flying from McGuire Air Force Base (New Jersey) to Okinawa (Japan), with intermediate stops at the El Toro (California) and Hickam (Hawaii) air bases. The first part of the flight was completed without deviations. Then at 01:45 the aircraft, with 12 crew members and 72 passengers (in some sources the number of passengers varies from 71 to 73), took off northbound from runway 34R of El Toro base. The take-off was made in drizzle and dense fog. Just a few kilometres from the air base lies the Loma Ridge, so aircraft must make a left turn after take-off. However, in this case, for a reason that has not been fully established, the crew did not do so. As a result, five kilometres from the air base and not far from the city of Santa Ana, the aircraft struck a 400-metre-high mountain just 46 metres below the summit. The Stratolifter was completely destroyed by the impact, and everyone on board was killed. This is the deadliest crash involving the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа C-135 под Санта-Аной” (revision 150407137, 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
Russian Wikipedia article: Катастрофа C-135 под Санта-Аной
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150407137 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18398539
- 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
- ru Wikipedia article "Катастрофа C-135 под Санта-Аной" (page 5084955, revision 150407137), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- 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 Russian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.