1992 Starlifter Collision

Thirteen Stones on the Hi-Line:

The 1992 Starlifter Collision and the Town That Answered It

The Mission

On November 30, 1992, four Lockheed C-141B Starlifters of the 62nd Airlift Wing flew from McChord Air Force Base, south of Tacoma, Washington, to north-central Montana for a night training mission. They were to refuel in flight from a Washington Air National Guard KC-135 tanker out of Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane. Afterward they were to rehearse a cargo drop near Moses Lake, Washington. None carried cargo. The C-141, a four-engine jet transport of the Military Airlift Command, had moved the bulk of the materiel sent to the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War (Seattle Times Staff).

Two of the four aircraft, serial numbers 65-0255 and 66-0142, carried seven and six crew members ("Crash of a Lockheed"; "1992—Nov 30"). Eleven of the thirteen belonged to the 36th Airlift Squadron, one to the 8th, and one to the 4th. Colonel Howard Ingersoll, the wing commander, said the crews were well qualified and had flown the maneuver before. Standard separation during refueling, he explained, was 500 feet vertically and up to two miles horizontally. Aircraft rejoining formation, however, could come within three-quarters of a mile of one another (Seattle Times Staff).

The training area lay over the Hi-Line, the broad wheat and range country along U.S. Highway 2 in northern Montana ("Community Honors"; "Airmen Memorial"). Below it was Harlem, a town of about 1,100 people (Seattle Times Staff).

The Collision

The aircraft collided at 8:20 p.m. Pacific time, which was 9:20 p.m. in Montana (Seattle Times Staff; "Crash of a Lockheed"). The Federal Aviation Administration placed them between 24,000 and 27,000 feet. Other accounts say about 25,000 (Seattle Times Staff; "1992—Nov 30"; "Crash of a Lockheed"). An FAA spokesman called the weather at that altitude clear. The aviation historian David Gero reported scattered lower clouds, seven miles of visibility, and moderate turbulence (Gero, qtd. in "1992—Nov 30").

Summaries of Air Force mishap data describe the sequence. According to the Aviation Safety Network, the tanker led the transports through a refueling pattern at about 25,500 feet. The first C-141 finished and backed away to the left, to about 25,000 feet, but stayed unusually close. The second, having finished, also backed away, unaware of the first aircraft's position, and struck it ("1992—Nov 30"). Ingersoll's first public statement, that one aircraft was moving back into formation at the time, agrees with this account (Seattle Times Staff). Both aircraft broke apart in the air and came down about a mile from each other (Seattle Times Staff).

Sources differ on location. Most place the wreckage about nine miles north of Harlem, while the Seattle Times says twelve and Gero ten ("Airmen Memorial"; "Crash of a Lockheed"; Seattle Times Staff; "1992—Nov 30"). They also differ on the debris field, which was sixteen square miles in the Seattle Times and eight miles by three in Gero. The Associated Press placed the site about thirty miles south of the Canadian border ("1992—Nov 30"). A roadside memorial now stands near it on Hogeland Road (Farmer).

The Ground

Angie Fischer, at her mother's house on a hilltop west of the site, described a fireball in the sky and a second when the wreckage struck the ground (Seattle Times Staff). Kraig Hansen, then Harlem's fire chief, recalled that dispatchers fielded many calls about explosions. A man brought in a piece of debris, which Hansen recognized as military. Residents of the colony north of town reported finding wreckage, and the Air Force telephoned to say aircraft were down ("Community Honors").

Tom Hofer, who lived in that colony, was among the first to reach the site. He found an open wallet on the ground. Once the fire crew arrived, he and others kept the flames away from the bodies ("Community Honors"). The fires had started in fields of wheat and barley. Mixed rain and snow, with winds of thirty to forty miles an hour, put them out (Seattle Times Staff).

The Air Force later recognized thirty-nine Harlem residents who searched for survivors, secured the scene, and protected the dead. National Guard personnel, police, and firefighters arrived soon afterward, but the volunteers stayed for weeks. They assisted investigators from November 30, 1992, to March 2, 1993 (Crawford). Malmstrom Air Force Base, about 175 miles away, sent a sixty-two-member security team that night (Seattle Times Staff). Hansen recalled that firefighters waited in buses, out of the cold, for military police (Anstaett). The dead went first to a temporary morgue on the plains and then to Malmstrom. The Associated Press reported no buildings struck and no injuries on the ground (qtd. in "1992—Nov 30"). At McChord, flags flew at half-staff and a crisis team was assembled. The crews of the two surviving aircraft were made available to investigators (Seattle Times Staff).

What the Record Establishes

Contemporary and later sources agree on the central facts: two aircraft, thirteen dead, no survivors (Seattle Times Staff; Crawford; "Crash of a Lockheed"). The Associated Press called it the worst military air disaster in Montana history. It named as the previous worst a Flying Fortress that left Great Falls in December 1942 and killed twelve ("1992—Nov 30"). That comparison rests on a single wire report.

Cause is less settled in public sources. The sequence given above comes from the Aviation Safety Network and a 2004 mishap summary by Lt. Col. Paul Hansen. Both are reproduced in a compiled record of American disasters ("1992—Nov 30"). The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives says the aircraft collided "under unknown circumstances," and Gero wrote in 1999 that nothing on probable cause had been disclosed ("Crash of a Lockheed"; "1992—Nov 30"). The sources consulted for this article contain neither the Air Force's full accident investigation report nor a published finding on responsibility. The sequence should therefore be read as a summary and not as the investigating board's conclusions.

The record also contains discrepancies. The monument inscription describes a "low level" refueling exercise. The Blaine County Museum's collection summary repeats that phrase and names the aircraft "C-147b" (Blaine County Museum; "Airmen Memorial"). The aircraft were C-141Bs, and the collision occurred near 25,000 feet. The sources do not explain the difference. The Aviation Safety Network dates the event December 1, which its compiler corrects to the night of November 30 ("1992—Nov 30").

The Airmen

The dead were Captains David J. Sielewicz, Jimmy Lee Jenkins, Mark A. Elster, Edward D. Parent Jr., Banks E. Wilkinson, and Kevin M. Maguire; First Lieutenant Edward H. Hoyle III; Technical Sergeants Peter L. Osterfeld and David R. Young; Staff Sergeants Terrence J. Miyoshi and Monte L. Bissett; Senior Airman Wilbert Brown III; and Airman First Class George A. Moreland (Crawford; Anstaett). Spellings of several surnames vary among sources, and this article follows the Air Force's.

Maguire was thirty-two (Anstaett). The memorial lists birthplaces from Connecticut and Alabama to California and Montreal. The youngest of the dead, Brown, was born in 1971 ("Airmen Memorial").

The Memorials

Darwin Zellmer recalled that on the morning after the crash he told Harlem's mayor, Victor Miller, that something should be done for the families. Miller replied that State Representative Francis Bardanouve was already opening a bank account ("Community Honors"). A committee of about seventeen people built the memorial from private donations of money, materials, and labor (Anstaett). Zellmer states that no government funds were used ("Airmen Memorial"). The Blaine County Museum holds his photographs of the wreckage and of the construction (Zellmer; Blaine County Museum). The memorial was dedicated in May 1993 (Crawford; Farmer).

Thirteen stones surround a central monument, each bearing a name. The inscription includes John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s poem "High Flight." It also says that the community keeps asking why and has no answer ("Airmen Memorial"; Blaine County Museum). A plaque of the poem was a gift from Maguire's family, and the poem was read at the dedication (Farmer). Secretary of Defense Les Aspin wrote to thank the town. He quoted Pearl S. Buck on Montana's closeness to nature and added that he took her to mean the people's kindness as well (Farmer).

A second memorial, near the crash site, uses stones that Mayor Miller and firefighters gathered there (Anstaett). In 2012, McChord personnel held a ceremony at the base's own C-141 memorial (Crawford). On the thirtieth anniversary in 2022, Harlem dedicated a pedestrian bridge bearing the names ("Community Honors"). In 2023, the Blaine County Museum opened an exhibit drawn from four scrapbooks the committee had kept (Farmer).

On May 25, 2025, the Air Force presented its Commander's Public Service Award to the thirty-nine volunteers. Frank Maguire, Kevin's brother, had nominated them. He said he had left Montana unaware of the danger and anguish the town experienced (Crawford). Committee members said in 2022 that they needed younger people to help maintain the site (Anstaett).

Works Cited

"Airmen Memorial." The Historical Marker Database, 27 Dec. 2022, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=142910. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Anstaett, Colter. "Community Continues to Honor Airmen 30 Years after Deadly Montana Crash." KRTV, 7 Nov. 2022, https://www.krtv.com/news/military-matters/community-continues-to-honor-airmen-30-years-after-deadly-montana-crash. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Blaine County Museum. "Harlem Airmen Memorial." Montana History Portal, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/118211. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

"Community Honors Airmen 30 Years after Deadly Montana Crash." KRTV, 1 Dec. 2022, https://www.krtv.com/news/military-matters/community-honors-airmen-30-years-after-deadly-montana-crash. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

"Crash of a Lockheed C-141B-LM Starlifter near Harlem: 7 Killed." Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-lockheed-c-141b-lm-starlifter-near-harlem-7-killed. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Crawford, Allyson B. "Honoring 39 from Harlem, Montana: Civilians Recognized for Courage after 1992 Air Force Tragedy." Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, U.S. Air Force, https://www.aflcmc.af.mil/NEWS/Article/4337864/honoring-39-from-harlem-montana-civilians-recognized-for-courage-after-1992-air/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Farmer, Kody. "'High Flight: Remembering the C-141 Collision of 1992' on Display at the Blaine County Museum." The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion, 4 Jan. 2023, https://www.blainecountyjournal.com/story/2023/01/04/news/high-flight-remembering-the-c-141-collision-of-1992-on-display-at-the-blaine-county-museum/8341.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

"1992—Nov 30, Two USAF C-141 Transports Collide Mid-Air, near Harlem, MT—13." Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-of-Life Events, https://www.usdeadlyevents.com/1992-nov-30-two-usaf-c-141-transports-collide-mid-air-near-harlem-mt-13/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Seattle Times Staff. "McChord Cargo Jets Collide—13 Killed in Crash over Montana." The Seattle Times, 1 Dec. 1992, https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19921201/1527535/mcchord-cargo-jets-collide----13-killed-in-crash-over-montana. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.

Zellmer, Darwin, creator. "Photo of the Plane Wreck." 1993. Harlem Airmen Memorial, Blaine County Museum, Montana History Portal, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/118342. Accessed 30 Sept. 2026.