The State - News from Dec. 13, 1985
Failure to follow training flight rules caused the Aug. 27 crash of a KC-135 Stratotanker that killed seven fliers during a “touch-and- go” landing at Beale Air Force Base near Marysville in August, a three-member investigative team concluded. The mistakes began when the aircraft from Castle Air Force Base, near Merced, approached on its third practice landing with a rocking wing motion. Witnesses told the team from March Air Force Base at Riverside that the aircraft’s left wing was low and its nose was high, causing the left engine to scrape the runway and catch fire before crashing.
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