Remembering the Crew of the 1997 Midair Collision Between an Air Force C-141 and a German Tupolev Tu-154 Off the Coast of Africa

I was the Director of Visual Information Services and an aircrew-certified photojournalist assigned to McGuire Air Force Base (AFB), NJ, from 1996 through 2002. We were constantly jockeying to hop on missions to document and tell the story of the tanker and airlift squadrons (AS). We became very close with both the crews and the “bookies” and were always on the lookout for a good story. We would review flight/mission schedules, particularly during weekends, such as refueling B-2 bombers and FA-18s, or airdropping fun stuff like Humvees out the backs of a formation of C-141s. When we were not flying, we would take official photos and passport/visa/isolated personnel reports, document traffic accidents, and capture those usual grip-n-grin ceremonial events. We were also in tight with the loadmasters, as they would occasionally return our flip-top bottles to Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

While there, I got to know Capt Gregory Cindrich, who graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in May 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in history. He completed his Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) assignment at Reese AFB, TX. After graduating from UPT in 1992, he was assigned to Andrews AFB, MD in the 89th Mission Support Squadron. In 1995, he joined the 15 AS at Charleston AFB, NC, as a C-141 pilot. He became a top-notch pilot and was especially proud of the humanitarian missions he had flown. Among them was the medical evacuation of several Khobar Towers bombing victims and the medical evacuation of an Air Korea crash survivor from Guam to a burn center. He had been reassigned to the 13 AS at McGuire in late 1996 when he came into our office to work on “graphics” on our self-help workstations. When Cindrich entered our office, we were scanning imagery pertaining to Khobar Towers, and a lengthy discussion took place, as he was eager to share his story. As we were mutual history buffs, the topic extended into American history, and we became friends.

In the latter part of September, another friend from the 13 AS, Capt Peter Vallejo, set up appointments for the assigned crew to get visa photos for a short-notice humanitarian airlift mission to Africa. Many of these nine crewmembers were known to me because the 13 AS frequented our services regularly. Capt Cindrich was among the nine. They would never return from the mission.

On Sept. 13, 1997, a German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M observation aircraft and the McGuire C-141B aircraft were destroyed in a mid-air collision while cruising at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) off the coast of Namibia, Africa. All 33 people on board both aircraft were killed. At the time of the collision, the Tupolev was flying on a southerly route from Niamey, Niger, to Cape Town, South Africa, while the C-141 was heading northwest from Windhoek, Namibia, to Ascension Island.

Neither aircraft was equipped with traffic collision avoidance systems (TCASs). Although both crews had filed a flight plan, the German aircraft was not in contact with Namibian air traffic control (ATC), and controllers were unaware of its presence in Namibian airspace. Furthermore, the Tupolev was flying at the wrong altitude according to its flight plan and the semicircular rule.

The subsequent USAF inquiry concluded that the German crew was responsible for the accident, citing pilot error and inadequate ATC that contributed to the fatal lack of separation.

A year before the accident, the Inter­national Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations stated that, from a safety point of view, 75 percent of African airspace was “critically deficient.”

On Sept. 26, 1997, Gregory M. Cindrich and the crew were declared dead after a 13-day, multinational search-and-rescue effort in response to the midair collision of his C-141 and a German Air Force Tu-154 off the coast of Africa.

In 1997, the Air Force appointed Colonel William H.C. Schell Jr. to lead the investigation into the collision. A final report with the board’s conclu­sions was released in March 1998. The investigation blamed primarily the German crew, who were cruising at 35,000 feet in breach of the semicircu­lar rule, which states that an aircraft heading in a southeasterly direction must fly at an altitude of either 29,000, 33,000, 37,000, or 41,000 feet. The German Air Force also acknowledged that its aircraft was at fault in the crash in its investigative report.

In addition, the report cited systemic problems in Africa’s ATC system as contributing factors to the accident. It blamed faulty communications equipment that prevented the German aircraft’s flight plan from being transmitted through the proper channels and negligent controllers in Luanda who failed to pass on the aircraft’s position to Namibian ATC. Another substantially contributing factor was the complicated and sporadic operation of the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network.

The report stated that if either aircraft had been equipped with a TCAS, it is highly likely the crash could have been avoided, reading, “The presence of a fully operational TCAS on either aircraft could have prevented the accident.” One day before the release of the report, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced that the military would begin installing TCASs on its aircraft.

The lack of a TCAS on the German aircraft brought considerable pressure on Germany to install collision avoidance systems on its aircraft. Despite being listed on the Project Objective Memorandum of the C-141B for 5 years, installation of the TCAS began on a small number of aircraft soon after the crash.

Capt Cindrich and the eight other Airmen onboard were were interred in Arlington National Cemetery, Plot: Section 34 Site 1758.