Published in the Fort Campbell Courier Dec. 12, 1985
Some 248 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell Soldiers were killed in an early morning plane crash at Gander (Newfoundland) International Airport today, returning from six months of peacekeeping duty on the Sinai Peninsula in the Middle East.
The Soldiers, representing many division and post military units, died when the chartered Arrow Air DC-8 plane they were aboard crashed on takeoff at about 6:45 a.m., Newfoundland time, this morning.
The pilot and crew of eight also died in the crash, bringing the total number of dead to about 256.
Canadian Transport Minister Don Mazankowski said the airplane got no higher than 1,000 feet into the air before crashing.
The crash is the worst ever in Canada and is reported to be the worst air disaster in U.S. military history.
“This is the deepest and most heart-felt tragedy of my time in the Army,” division and post commander Maj. Gen. Burton D. Patrick told about 70 news reporters at a 12:30 p.m. news conference today. “The first priority of this division now is the Families.”
The general said Family members who had gathered at a post gymnasium to greet the home-bound Soldiers had been informed of the tragedy.
Patrick said a Family support center had been set up within hours of the crash and that other Fort Campbell Families were assisting in comforting survivors.
“This division and the entire United States Army is in mourning today. We have suffered a tragic loss. Cohesion and comradeship are like still waters …they run deep.”
“This tragedy will have an everlasting impact, but the fiber of this division is strong,” Patrick said, obviously moved by the tragedy.
“We will take care of the Families, reconstitute our forces and continue with the mission. They wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Patrick said that since about 45 percent of the Soldiers stationed at Fort Campbell were married, he estimated approximately half the Soldiers in the crash could have been married.
As Patrick spoke, a “response team”, headed by Maj. Gen John S. Crosby, was headed to the scene of the crash to “provide all possible assistance.”
Once the Soldiers’ bodies are claimed by the Army, they will be transported to Dover AFB, Delaware, where they will be identified.
Patrick said Families will be notified from Dover and that names of the killed Soldiers will be released to the public as the Families are notified.
The commander said a memorial service will be held “as early as practical next week.”
This was the third of four contingents returning from the Sinai mission. About 970 Soldiers were in the task force. The rotational force had been part of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force and Observers since July.
The Multinational Peacekeeping Force and Observers on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has troops from the United States, Fiji, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Italy, Uruguay, France and England. They are under command of military officers from Norway.
The MFO was created as a peacekeeping force to police the disengagement of Israeli and Egyptian troops under the two nations’ 1979 peace treaty, the only such treaty between Israel and an Arab country.
The ill-fated DC-8 had flown from Cairo, Egypt to Cologne, West Germany, where it refueled. Gander was the second refueling stop and last leg of the journey to Fort Campbell.
Gander International Airport is located approximately 150 miles northwest of St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland on Canada’s Atlantic seaboard. It is often used by planes traveling between North America and Europe.
The Soldiers returning from the Sinai were being replaced by the 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., in a rotation which began earlier this month.
Although the exact cause of the crash has not been determined, officials have ruled out sabotage. The accident remains under investigation.