American Notes: Accidents

There was almost no warning last week before a giant C-130 transport plane of the Kentucky Air National Guard plummeted into a restaurant and motel in Evansville, Ind., and then exploded in a giant fireball. Sixteen people were killed in the crash, including the five crewmen aboard the plane, two workers at JoJo's restaurant, and nine people at the adjacent Drury Inn motel, all of them employees of a plumbing-supply company, who were gathered in a fourth- floor conference room.

Authorities had no explanation for the crash, which occurred while the crew was practicing a maneuver called "low approach," in which the plane would fly close to but not touch the airstrip of nearby Evansville Regional Airport. Soon after takeoff, the plane went into a nose dive. William Capodagli was in a seminar room of the motel when the plane hit. "There was this incredible fireball bursting through our window," he says. "Where there should have been daylight was a big spinning ball of flame."