Lockheed C-5A Galaxy 68-0227 27 September 1974 near Clinton, OK

The airplane departed Altus AFB that night to take part in air refueling training. That training was cut short, though, when an overheated brake ignited hydraulic fluid in the left aft landing gear well. The fire ignited tires and other components before burning through the keel beam and continuing into the right aft well. Rather than return to Altus, the crew elected to divert to the much closer Clinton-Sherman airfield (a former Air Force Base with a 13,500 feet runway length). However, the crew sighted the lights of the Clinton Municipal Airport and set up an approach. The runway at the MAP is only 4400 feet; the C-5 departed the south end of Runway 17, crossed an embankment, a road, and another embankment before sliding another 1000 feet into a field. The airplane shed its landing gear during the slide, and broke into three major sections. All nine crew escaped, with only a minor injury reported to one. A fire fed by an open shut-off valve broke out 20 minutes after the crash, consuming the forward portion of the airplane.

The next day's Daily Oklahoman told of the crash, the first since the C-5 entered service.
Looking SW.....the aircraft broke into three main parts after impact: the tail, the aft fuselage, and wings/forward fuselage. The post-impact fire destroyed the forward section.
A photo from the official crash report, looking north across the crash site. Clinton MAP's runway 17/35 is at the top.
The crash site as seen in a 1980 USGS photo. The road has since been relocated, and now runs through the debris field. While there appears to be a few scattered pieces of larger wreckage in the field on the south side of the road, there is not much else in this view to indicate that one of the world's largest aircraft had come to grief there.
Jennifer walks the field where the aft fuselage and tail section of 68-0227 came to rest south of the runway at Clinton Municipal Airport. Most of the accessible wreckage is now confined to this area.
When I last visited this area in December 2005, the field between the road and the runway was just grass and was littered with small pieces of the airplane. It's recently been planted with corn. I wonder if the field was cleaned up first, or if all the parts were just plowed under? The white stripes denoting the end of the runway are just barely visible in the center of the field. The view looks upslope, and I had to stand on the bed rails of my pickup just to see this much!