KC-135 Pressure Test Gone Very Wrong
April 7th 1999 – A Boeing KC-135R-BN Stratotanker, 57-1418, c/n 17549, of the 153rd Air Refuelling Squadron, Air National Guard, was undergoing maintenance at the Oklahoma ALC, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. When a civilian technician commenced a pressurization test using what some say was a home-built non-standard pressure gauge that most unfortunately did not have a needle “Max” peg. During a moment of distraction, the technician failed to notice the meter passing the max indication point, and then also failed to notice that the needle continued for another full 360-degree turn.
As the needle was making its second way around the gauge, the KC-135 Stratotanker with its cabin now ridiculously over-pressurized, responded most unfavourably, rupturing with an explosive BOOM, announcing the technicians failure for all to hear, and the immense cabin pressure violently tearing a massive 35 foot hole in the aft fuselage, allowing tail section of the 53 million dollar jet to commence a self-executed rapid kinetic disassembly, and unceremoniously dropped to the ground.
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