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The wreckage shown here, once a repurposed WWII-era aircraft, crashed in 1987 while performing a fire suppression mission on an Army missile testing site in White Sands, New Mexico.

Aviation

Fire & Explosion

A team of accident investigators, including explosive experts from RTI, found evidence that an external airborne force had affected the aircraft prior to impact.

3D Scans of the aircraft wreckage

On September 10, 1987, a civilian aircraft crashed on the White Sands Missile Test Site in White Sands, NM. The aircraft, referred to as Tanker 07, owned by Black Hills Aviation, crashed while performing a contract air fire suppression support mission on the White Sands Base. The PV-2 aircraft crashed into a mountain in the Red Rio/Oscura area of the missle base. This area was also the testing site for the evaluation of the Army’s Line of Sight Forward Heavy Missle phase of the Forward Area Air Defense System (FAADS) Project.

A team of aircraft accident investigators, including explosive experts from RTI, conducted an analysis of the crash debris displayed here. The experts found evidence that an airborne external force had affected Tanker 07 prior to the aircraft’s impact to the ground. However, the district court concluded there was no basis that any external force was under the exclusive control of the United States, particularly no accidental missle firings or other military activities at the time of Tanker 07's crash.