Why Were KC-135 Tankers Exploding?

Shortly after 9 p.m. local time on March 19, 1982, residents of the quiet, rural town of Greenwood, Illinois, were shocked when a huge fireball turned the night sky orange, followed shortly by fiery wreckage raining down over an area 5 miles long by 2 miles wide.

A KC-135A Stratotanker refueling aircraft en route from K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette, Michigan, to Chicago O’Hare International Airport suddenly exploded at 13,700 feet. All four crew members of the aircraft, along with 23 passengers, members of a C-130 crew being transported from K.I. Sawyer to O’Hare, perished in the accident.