Soon after a night takeoff from Castle AFB, while climbing to a height of 500 feet, the aircraft adopted a 5° nose down attitude. The crew elected to correct this but the aircraft went into a descent and struck the ground 4 miles north of the airbase and exploded on impact, killing all 10 crew members. Crew: Cpt John A. Goddard, aircraft commander, Cpt Richard M. Wikstrom, pilot, Cpt Leland Fulton Burch, navigator, Maj Robert Louis Sherman, ECM operator Cpt Jack Eugene Welch, radar-bombardier, Maj Bryant Guernsey Gay, electronic counter measure operator, T/Sgt William J. Maguire, radio operator, Cpt Nick Sam Koss, radar-bombardier instructor, Cpt Charles Warren Schweer, ECM instructor, T/Sgt Gerald Everett Riley, tail gunner.
Probable cause (official findings): No technical issues and no structural failure was found during investigations. It is believed the accident was the consequence of an uncontrolled descent caused either by a wrong maneuver on part of the pilot or due to the fact that they were distracted. Following this accident, it will be recommended that flaps could not be raised below a minimum altitude of 1,000 feet.