Qualla: Green Ramp disaster

Green Ramp disaster: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Just after two in the afternoon on Wednesday, March 23, 1994, about 500 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division were standing, sitting, and kneeling on the Green Ramp at Pope Air Force Base, rigging chutes and waiting for the C-130s and C-141s that would take them up to jump. The sky above them was full - F-16s, A-10s, and other C-130s flying training patterns into the same runway. Most of the men had done this hundreds of times. Two miles overhead, an F-16D from the 74th Fighter Squadron was setting up a simulated flameout approach to Runway 23. It would not see the C-130 already on short final.

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Image: Public domain

Green Ramp disaster: The Collision

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. At about 300 feet above the ground, the nose of the F-16D sliced through the C-130E's right elevator. The fighter pilots, Captains Joseph Jacyno and Scott Salmon, slammed into afterburner trying to fly out of it, but their aircraft began to come apart, scattering debris across th...

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Image: Public domain

Green Ramp disaster: Into the Crowd

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Air Force, Public domain. The wreckage hit the ramp between two parked C-130s whose crews were still aboard. Its momentum carried it westward through the right wing of a C-141B Starlifter from the 438th Airlift Wing, parked there for the jump. The fuel tanks ruptured. A fireball rose, gathered the F-16 wr...

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Image: U.S. Air Force | Public domain

Green Ramp disaster: What Witnesses Did

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The paratroopers who could still move went back into the fire to pull out the ones who could not. They carried friends through exploding ammunition, smothered burning gear, organized triage on the grass between buildings. The injuries were terrible - jet fuel and parachute nylon ...

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Image: Public domain

Green Ramp disaster: Cause and Consequence

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Air Force investigation found multiple causes and put most of the blame on air traffic control. The F-16 crew bore part of it for failing to see and avoid the C-130 as regulations required, though there were extenuating circumstances - the controller had alerted the pilots to...

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Image: Public domain

Green Ramp disaster: What Remains at Green Ramp

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Pope Air Force Base became Pope Field in 2011, absorbed into Fort Bragg. The ramp where it happened still operates, still loads paratroopers, still launches C-130s. A memorial at the base lists the twenty-four names. Each March 23, survivors return - some still bearing the burn s...

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Image: Public domain