Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo 155721, 'NJ', of VA-128, out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, crashes in the Oregon desert, ~25 miles SE of Christmas Valley, Oregon, during a low level night training mission. One source cites date of 15 October 1971. The Navy investigation later determines that five or six flight accidents and one hangar accident may have been caused by the same problem. Adair, with no pilot in the aircraft, is forced to eject. 151563, of VA-42, on a maintenance test flight out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, suffers failure of the drogue chute gun in the pilot's ejection seat, pulling the two ejection seat cables and ejecting Lt. This is the first of two C-141s lost during the conflict, and one of only three strategic airlifters written off during the Vietnam War. Military Airlift Command crew killed are Capt. bombs and six rocket packs go off in ensuing fire. Doug Wilson, survive, crawl out of smashed canopy after jet stops. Intruder overturns, skids on down runway on back, but both crew, Capt. A-6 crew sees Starlifter at last moment, veers off runway to try to avoid it, but port wing slices through C-141's nose, which immediately catches fire, load of 72 acetylene gas cylinders ignite and causes tremendous explosion, only loadmaster escaping through rear hatch. 1967 23 March Worst ground aviation accident of Vietnam War occurs at Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam when traffic controller clears USMC Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo 152608, of VMA(AW)-242, MAG-11, for takeoff but also clears USAF Lockheed C-141A-LM Starlifter, 65-9407, of the 62nd Military Airlift Wing, McChord AFB, Washington, to cross runway.
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