The 1988 Remscheid A-10 crash occurred on December 8, 1988, when an

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

attack jet of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

crashed onto a residential area in the city of

Remscheid Remscheid () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The aircraft crashed into the upper floor of an apartment complex. In addition to the pilot, five people were killed. Fifty others were injured, many of them seriously. According to press reports the plane was engaged in a low-altitude flight exercise. It belonged to a unit from

Bentwaters Royal Air Force Bentwaters or more simply RAF Bentwaters, now known as Bentwaters Parks, is a former Royal Air Force station about northeast of London and east-northeast of Ipswich, near Woodbridge, Suffolk in England. Its name was taken fro ...

Air Base but at the time of the accident was stationed at

Nörvenich Nörvenich is a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located about east of Düren. See also *Nörvenich Air Base Nörvenich Air Base (Fliegerhorst Nörvenich) is a German Air Force ...

Air Base, a so-called ''Forward Operation Location (FOL)''. The flight leader, Captain Marke F. Gibson, was leading his flight followed by his wingman, Captain Michael P. Foster. The cause of the accident was attributed to

spatial disorientation Spatial disorientation results in a person being unable to determine their position or relative motion, commonly occurring during periods of challenging visibility, since vision is the dominant sense for orientation. The auditory system, vestibular ...

, after both planes encountered difficult and adverse weather conditions for visual flying. Captain Gibson was able to maneuver his aircraft to safety, but Captain Foster's aircraft crashed into the houses in Stockder Strasse.

Aftermath

When the number of cancer cases in the vicinity of the accident rose disproportionately in the years after, suspicion rose that the jet, contrary to US statements, may have been loaded with ammunition containing

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope than natural uranium.: "Depleted uranium possesses only 60% of the radioactivity of natural uranium, hav ...

.hier und heute 1988 in german
This was denied by the US military. However, 70 tons of top soil from the accident scene was removed and taken away to a depot (which also happens to be standard procedure for cleanup when a large amount of

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

is spilled on populated ground, such as in a plane crash).taz.de: Remscheid-Absturz mit Folgen
13. Oktober 1989 Also, film material taken during the top-soil removal show radiation warning signs. 120 residents and rescue workers reported skin diseases, diagnosed as (toxic) contact dermatitis.wz.de: Flugzeugabsturz in Remscheid 1988: Der Schock sitzt immer noch tief
8. Dezember 2008 Damages accounted to approximately DM 13 million and were covered 75% by the US Air Force and 25% by the West German Government.

References

External links

* ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
U.S. Plane Crashes Into German City
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1988 Accidents and incidents involving United States Air Force aircraft Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany 1988 in West Germany 1980s in North Rhine-Westphalia December 1988 events in Europe {{aviation-accident-stub