The Tachikawa air disaster occurred on the afternoon of Thursday, June 18, 1953 when a United States Air Force (USAF) Douglas C-124 Globemaster II aircraft crashed three minutes after takeoff from Tachikawa, Japan, killing all 129 people on board. At the time, the crash was the deadliest in aviation history, and is notable for being the first aviation accident to kill more than 100 people.