Date:	Thursday 8 March 1973
Time:
Type:	Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker
Owner/operator:	United States Air Force - USAF
Registration:	63-7989
MSN:	18606/645
Year of manufacture:	1963
Total airframe hrs:	4933 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney J57-P
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Columbus-Lockbourne AFB, OH (LCK) -   United States of America
Phase:	Taxi
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Columbus-Lockbourne AFB, OH (LCK/KLCK)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
During a practice alert at Lockbourne AFB, two KC-135 Stratotankers (63-7989 and 63-7980) taxied from an unlit ramp towards the runway. Both aircraft collided while manoeuvring off the ramp. Stratotanker 63-7989 continued 200 yards before coming to a stop in a muddy, grassy section just off the concrete apron. Flames engulfed the tanker from the cockpit to the mid-section and burned two large holes in the plane.

Marysville Journal-Tribune (March 9, 1973)
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker: More Than Just a Tanker (Aerofax Series) / Robert S Hopkins, III

photo (c) Richard Harris; Columbus-Lockbourne AFB, OH (LCK); 09 March 1973

photo (c) Richard Harris; Columbus-Lockbourne AFB, OH (LCK); 09 March 1973

photo (c) Richard Harris; Columbus-Lockbourne AFB, OH (LCK); 09 March 1973

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