[5] At 9:28 a.m. CST (3:28 p.m. UTC)[6] on Saturday, 16 January 1965, a Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, serial number 57-1442, took off from the McConnell Air Force Base and gained very little altitude.

Unable to recover, the aircraft crashed into a suburban neighborhood at the intersection of Piatt and 20th Street, just three minutes after take-off.

[8] The aerial refueling aircraft was loaded with 31,000 US gallons (120,000 L) of jet fuel,[9] and the crash resulted in a large explosion and subsequent fire, which engulfed dozens of homes.

[6] It was reported that the crew entry door was jettisoned and a B-52 Stratofortress bomber, which took off prior to the KC-135, may have blown a detached drag chute from an F-105 Thunderchief against the departing aircraft.

[10] On July 14, 2007, more than forty-two years after the accident, an airplane-shaped twelve by twenty-two foot Imperial Black Granite monument with the names of all thirty victims of the crash inscribed on it was unveiled at a ceremony.