August 8, 2025 • 9 mins
In 1994, two military aircraft collided while approaching Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina, starting a chain of events that would lead to a horrifying accident with the largest number of ground fatalities from any aircraft accident in US history...
Fascinating Horror covers the true stories behind some of history's greatest disasters. This podcast is an audio version of the YouTube channel of the same name. The channel is made possible by supporters on Patreon and YouTube channel members. HUGE thanks to everyone who supports this channel!
LINKS: 🔗
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror
► Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
► Get in touch: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
Fascinating Horror covers the true stories behind some of history's greatest disasters. This podcast is an audio version of the YouTube channel of the same name. The channel is made possible by supporters on Patreon and YouTube channel members. HUGE thanks to everyone who supports this channel!
LINKS: 🔗
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror
► Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
► Get in touch: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the twenty third of March nineteen ninety four, two
military aircraft collided while approaching Pope Air Force Base in
North Carolina. Both were damaged in the cleision. One aircraft
was able to land, while the crew of the other
were able to safely eject. Among the crew of the
two planes, there were no casualties, but the cleision would
(00:20):
begin a chain of events that would lead to the
death of dozens of soldiers as well as hundreds of injuries.
Pope Air Force Base began life as Pope Field in
nineteen nineteen, a small, rudimentary landing field constructed alongside the
Army's Camp Brag Base. It was named after First Lieutenant
(00:42):
Harley Halbert Pope, who had died in a plane crash
early that year. During the first few decades of its operation,
it was used to launch many planes and balloons, mostly
for observation purposes. During World War II, however, the field
expanded rapidly. Its foracilities were upgraded, with permanent paved runways installed.
(01:04):
Over the years of the conflict, tens of thousands of
paratroopers trained there to prepare themselves for jumps into various
theatres of war. After World War II, Pope Air Force
Base remained a vital staging point for moving troops around
the world, as well as for continued paratrooper training. Soldiers
departed from Pope Air Force Base on numerous military, diplomatic,
(01:26):
and humanitarian missions around the globe. On the twenty third
of March nineteen ninety four, around five hundred paratroopers from
three divisions were gathered in the area of the base
known as Green Ramp. Officially, the ramp was a relatively
featureless aircraft parking area, but in practice the name Green
Ramp was used to refer to both this and also
(01:49):
an adjacent staging area filled with trees and structures. In
this area was a large, open fronted personnel shed, as
well as several small training buildings, storage facilities, snack bars,
and mock ups of the rear doors of various planes
designed to allow paratroopers to practice jumps and landings. The
(02:09):
majority of the five hundred paratroopers were in this staging area,
preparing themselves and their equipment for that day's scheduled jumps.
In the sky's above Pope Air Force Base, two aircraft
were approaching. One was an F sixteen D fighting Falcon
piloted by Captain Joseph Cacino and Scott Salmon for training purposes.
(02:30):
It was conducting a simulated flame out or engine failure landing.
The other was a Sea one thirty E Hercules, piloted
by Captain Hose Air Races, Lieutenant Adam Zaratt and Sergeant
Joel Myers. It was returning to base, having cut short
an exercise due to a minor equipment malfunction which affected
one of its doors. As the two aircraft approached the base,
(02:54):
they collide it The F sixteen's nose smashed into the
C one thirty's right elevator, causing signific damage to both planes.
The crew of the C one thirty were able to
stabilize their plane and eventually bring it in for a
safe landing. The crew of the F sixteen, however, did
not fare so well. Immediately after the cleision, Captain Gersino
(03:15):
increased the thrust of the F sixteen, hoping to keep
it airborne. At the same time, however, he observed the
catastrophic damage to his plane and heard caols to eject
over the radio, assuming on the basis of these cools
that the damage was more extensive even than what he
could see. Captain Gusino ejected, as did the F sixteen's
other pilot. The F sixteen was now unmanned, moving at
(03:39):
full thrust. It flew on in a huge arc, entirely uncontrolled,
eventually impacting with the ground in an empty parking space
on Green Ramp in between two other aircraft. The clision
was catastrophic. The F sixteen bounced and slid across the ground,
smashing into the wing of a parked aircraft. This exploded,
(04:01):
creating a massive fireball that, along with the wreckage of
the F sixteen, rolled onward to engulf the staging area
where the five hundred paratroopers were amassed. Captain Gerald K. Bebber,
a military chaplain who was present on scene, later recalled
the disaster. I recognized the sound from my experience in
(04:21):
battle in desert storm. As soon as I could think this,
a great roaring rush of fire entered my sight above
and to the left of the pack shed. It was
at tree top level, slanting down as it gushed into
the mock up area at terrific speed. The flame came
through the tops of the trees that stood in a
small open area beside the pack shed. In the torrent
(04:43):
of flame. I saw pieces of wreckage a machinery hurling
along as the torrent rushed in. I could hear cries
of alarm, curses, and someone yelling run from the mock ups.
The fire blast crackled as it blasted in, and at
its sides it curled outward as it went forward. I
was standing perhaps thirty feet beside the edge of the
(05:03):
blast and could see eddies of the flame curling out
toward me. I turned and ran from the flame to
just beyond the right end of the pack shed, where
I no longer felt the intense heat. So I stopped
to my left out on the aircraft ramp. Now in
my line of sight, I could see a parked Sea
one four one engulfed in flames. It was the left
(05:26):
one of a pair of Sea one four ones parked there.
The injuries caused by the crash were severe. Many paratroopers
were burned or suffered traumatic injuries from flying debris. Worse still,
the crash sprayed aviation fuel over a wide area. Many
soldiers had their uniforms contaminated with fuel, but did not
(05:47):
realize this until they attempted to extinguish nearby flames. And
caught fire themselves. Several more were also injured when the
heat of the flames set off live ammunition from the
damaged aircraft. Despite the imminently dangerous conditions of the accident site,
surviving soldiers on scene quickly began to help their injured comrades,
(06:08):
putting out fires, tending to wounds, and beginning a massive
operation to transport the injured to the nearby Womack Army
Medical Center. Some of the more seriously injured were evacuated
by helicopter to other specialist medical facilities. The response to
the crash was, for a number of reasons, extremely swift
and well coordinated. The paratroopers involved had conducted countless drills
(06:32):
and training exercises to prepare for mass casualty events like this. Likewise,
the Womack Army Medical Center was able to use mass
casualty emergency plans that staff had formulated and practiced many
times before. Patients were triaged in the driveway, allowing the
most seriously injured to be prioritized. Air Force firefighters were
(06:54):
able to work seamlessly with civilian fire fighters, as the
two groups had previously co ordinated to ensure that they
had compatible equipment and protocols. The flames from the explosion
were extinguished within hours, and the damaged aircraft were made safe.
Though it had been a devastating accident with many serious injuries,
all of the injured were transported to further medical care
(07:16):
within forty five minutes of the crash. In total, twenty
three people had been killed and more than one hundred injured.
One further seriously burned paratrooper would pass away in hospital
as a result of his injuries. More than nine months later,
an investigation by the Army concluded that numerous errors had
(07:37):
coincided to cause the accident, and that most of these
errors had been made by the air traffic controllers working
at Pope Air Force Base. On the day of the accident,
a trainee air traffic controller was on duty, supervised by
a more experienced controller. Control of the F sixteen was
handed to him without prior warning by a civilian air
(07:57):
traffic controller at nearby Fayetteville. This handover should have been
coordinated by phone call, but was not. Despite this, the
trainee noted the potential for conflict between the F sixteen
and the C one thirty, and attempted repeatedly to direct
the C one thirty away from this potential danger. However,
as he did so, he accidentally used the wrong call sign,
(08:21):
and his efforts were thus unsuccessful. At this point, his
supervisor stepped in and took over control of the situation,
but failed to deconflict the two aircraft in time. The
confusing situation had also been exacerbated by the incorrect placement
of a flight data strip and a radar display that
had not been updated with the correct information. As a
(08:44):
result of this investigation, two officers were reassigned to other
duties and a further three were subject to disciplinary action.
A memorial service was held for the deceased on the
twenty ninth of March nineteen ninety four. In addition to this,
the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, visited
the crash site and spoke to paratroopers recovering in hospital.
(09:06):
He later said, I wish everyone in America could see
the faces and the eyes and the spirit of these people.
They would realize how fortunate we are to be served
by men and women like them.
On the twenty third of March nineteen ninety four, two
military aircraft collided while approaching Pope Air Force Base in
North Carolina. Both were damaged in the cleision. One aircraft
was able to land, while the crew of the other
were able to safely eject. Among the crew of the
two planes, there were no casualties, but the cleision would
(00:20):
begin a chain of events that would lead to the
death of dozens of soldiers as well as hundreds of injuries.
Pope Air Force Base began life as Pope Field in
nineteen nineteen, a small, rudimentary landing field constructed alongside the
Army's Camp Brag Base. It was named after First Lieutenant
(00:42):
Harley Halbert Pope, who had died in a plane crash
early that year. During the first few decades of its operation,
it was used to launch many planes and balloons, mostly
for observation purposes. During World War II, however, the field
expanded rapidly. Its foracilities were upgraded, with permanent paved runways installed.
(01:04):
Over the years of the conflict, tens of thousands of
paratroopers trained there to prepare themselves for jumps into various
theatres of war. After World War II, Pope Air Force
Base remained a vital staging point for moving troops around
the world, as well as for continued paratrooper training. Soldiers
departed from Pope Air Force Base on numerous military, diplomatic,
(01:26):
and humanitarian missions around the globe. On the twenty third
of March nineteen ninety four, around five hundred paratroopers from
three divisions were gathered in the area of the base
known as Green Ramp. Officially, the ramp was a relatively
featureless aircraft parking area, but in practice the name Green
Ramp was used to refer to both this and also
(01:49):
an adjacent staging area filled with trees and structures. In
this area was a large, open fronted personnel shed, as
well as several small training buildings, storage facilities, snack bars,
and mock ups of the rear doors of various planes
designed to allow paratroopers to practice jumps and landings. The
(02:09):
majority of the five hundred paratroopers were in this staging area,
preparing themselves and their equipment for that day's scheduled jumps.
In the sky's above Pope Air Force Base, two aircraft
were approaching. One was an F sixteen D fighting Falcon
piloted by Captain Joseph Cacino and Scott Salmon for training purposes.
(02:30):
It was conducting a simulated flame out or engine failure landing.
The other was a Sea one thirty E Hercules, piloted
by Captain Hose Air Races, Lieutenant Adam Zaratt and Sergeant
Joel Myers. It was returning to base, having cut short
an exercise due to a minor equipment malfunction which affected
one of its doors. As the two aircraft approached the base,
(02:54):
they collide it The F sixteen's nose smashed into the
C one thirty's right elevator, causing signific damage to both planes.
The crew of the C one thirty were able to
stabilize their plane and eventually bring it in for a
safe landing. The crew of the F sixteen, however, did
not fare so well. Immediately after the cleision, Captain Gersino
(03:15):
increased the thrust of the F sixteen, hoping to keep
it airborne. At the same time, however, he observed the
catastrophic damage to his plane and heard caols to eject
over the radio, assuming on the basis of these cools
that the damage was more extensive even than what he
could see. Captain Gusino ejected, as did the F sixteen's
other pilot. The F sixteen was now unmanned, moving at
(03:39):
full thrust. It flew on in a huge arc, entirely uncontrolled,
eventually impacting with the ground in an empty parking space
on Green Ramp in between two other aircraft. The clision
was catastrophic. The F sixteen bounced and slid across the ground,
smashing into the wing of a parked aircraft. This exploded,
(04:01):
creating a massive fireball that, along with the wreckage of
the F sixteen, rolled onward to engulf the staging area
where the five hundred paratroopers were amassed. Captain Gerald K. Bebber,
a military chaplain who was present on scene, later recalled
the disaster. I recognized the sound from my experience in
(04:21):
battle in desert storm. As soon as I could think this,
a great roaring rush of fire entered my sight above
and to the left of the pack shed. It was
at tree top level, slanting down as it gushed into
the mock up area at terrific speed. The flame came
through the tops of the trees that stood in a
small open area beside the pack shed. In the torrent
(04:43):
of flame. I saw pieces of wreckage a machinery hurling
along as the torrent rushed in. I could hear cries
of alarm, curses, and someone yelling run from the mock ups.
The fire blast crackled as it blasted in, and at
its sides it curled outward as it went forward. I
was standing perhaps thirty feet beside the edge of the
(05:03):
blast and could see eddies of the flame curling out
toward me. I turned and ran from the flame to
just beyond the right end of the pack shed, where
I no longer felt the intense heat. So I stopped
to my left out on the aircraft ramp. Now in
my line of sight, I could see a parked Sea
one four one engulfed in flames. It was the left
(05:26):
one of a pair of Sea one four ones parked there.
The injuries caused by the crash were severe. Many paratroopers
were burned or suffered traumatic injuries from flying debris. Worse still,
the crash sprayed aviation fuel over a wide area. Many
soldiers had their uniforms contaminated with fuel, but did not
(05:47):
realize this until they attempted to extinguish nearby flames. And
caught fire themselves. Several more were also injured when the
heat of the flames set off live ammunition from the
damaged aircraft. Despite the imminently dangerous conditions of the accident site,
surviving soldiers on scene quickly began to help their injured comrades,
(06:08):
putting out fires, tending to wounds, and beginning a massive
operation to transport the injured to the nearby Womack Army
Medical Center. Some of the more seriously injured were evacuated
by helicopter to other specialist medical facilities. The response to
the crash was, for a number of reasons, extremely swift
and well coordinated. The paratroopers involved had conducted countless drills
(06:32):
and training exercises to prepare for mass casualty events like this. Likewise,
the Womack Army Medical Center was able to use mass
casualty emergency plans that staff had formulated and practiced many
times before. Patients were triaged in the driveway, allowing the
most seriously injured to be prioritized. Air Force firefighters were
(06:54):
able to work seamlessly with civilian fire fighters, as the
two groups had previously co ordinated to ensure that they
had compatible equipment and protocols. The flames from the explosion
were extinguished within hours, and the damaged aircraft were made safe.
Though it had been a devastating accident with many serious injuries,
all of the injured were transported to further medical care
(07:16):
within forty five minutes of the crash. In total, twenty
three people had been killed and more than one hundred injured.
One further seriously burned paratrooper would pass away in hospital
as a result of his injuries. More than nine months later,
an investigation by the Army concluded that numerous errors had
(07:37):
coincided to cause the accident, and that most of these
errors had been made by the air traffic controllers working
at Pope Air Force Base. On the day of the accident,
a trainee air traffic controller was on duty, supervised by
a more experienced controller. Control of the F sixteen was
handed to him without prior warning by a civilian air
(07:57):
traffic controller at nearby Fayetteville. This handover should have been
coordinated by phone call, but was not. Despite this, the
trainee noted the potential for conflict between the F sixteen
and the C one thirty, and attempted repeatedly to direct
the C one thirty away from this potential danger. However,
as he did so, he accidentally used the wrong call sign,
(08:21):
and his efforts were thus unsuccessful. At this point, his
supervisor stepped in and took over control of the situation,
but failed to deconflict the two aircraft in time. The
confusing situation had also been exacerbated by the incorrect placement
of a flight data strip and a radar display that
had not been updated with the correct information. As a
(08:44):
result of this investigation, two officers were reassigned to other
duties and a further three were subject to disciplinary action.
A memorial service was held for the deceased on the
twenty ninth of March nineteen ninety four. In addition to this,
the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, visited
the crash site and spoke to paratroopers recovering in hospital.
(09:06):
He later said, I wish everyone in America could see
the faces and the eyes and the spirit of these people.
They would realize how fortunate we are to be served
by men and women like them.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!