My name is Norm Brander.

I have very fond memories of all the CCT guys I’ve ever met.  They’re the guys that epitomize the spirit of the American fighting man and they receive very little recognition from the public.  But I think they like it that way.

I was the Chief Flight Engineer in the 37th TAS in 1984 and was TDY to Zaragossa with our unit at the time for joint training with Spanish C-130s.  All our C130s were E model AWADS versions. This particular aircraft was on a single ship night paratroop drop mission for the purpose of replacing a CCT unit.  I was scheduled to fly that line that evening for the purpose of giving the engineer a practice check ride.  His name was Charlie Wyatt.  But there were so many observers wanting on the flight deck, including some senior Spanish officials, I bumped myself.

Later that evening I got the dreaded phone call to lock down all the rooms at the hotel where the enlisted guys were staying including an entire CCT unit, I believe was 15 members.

The best I remember the facts of the investigation was that there was a low ceiling that evening and they had to "no drop" on the first pass because they couldn’t visually pick up the drop zone.  On the racetrack the crew was going to descend earlier in an effort to acquire the drop zone in time.  Even though we were AWADS equipped this particular drop zone was not certified for an IMC airdrop. 

Unfortunately during the descent they impacted a mountain.  I believe they later determined the mountain was charted wrong by a mile. There was evidence the crew saw it coming.  The aircraft impacted at an extremely high angle of attack.  Although there were no survivors (23 casualties, if I remember correctly, including the entire CCT unit who were also from Rhein-Main) there were many open casket funerals.

Regards,
Norm Brander, FE (41, 16, 40, 37, 773)