On Oct 9, 1958 happened the worst accident in the history of the team. The team's escorting cargo plane C-123D crashed killing all 19 peoples from the Thunderbirds support staff. The cause of the crash maybe was a birds strike as one eyewitness said, but the officials not confirmed this.

The 1982 Diamond Crash was the worst operational accident to befall the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Team involving show aircraft. Four Northrop T-38 Talon jets crashed during operational training on 18 January 1982, killing all four pilots.

In January 1982, four members of the squadron were killed in what became known as the "Diamond Crash" of T-38 Talon aircraft which the squadron had flown since 1974. Partially as a result of that accident, the squadron switched to the F-16A, and sat out the 1982 airshow season and spent that year retraining and transitioning over to the new aircraft to ready themselves for the 1983 season.

December 11, 1954: Captain George Kevil killed during solo training. September 26, 1957: 1st Lieutenant Bob Rutte killed during solo training. October 9, 1958: 19 people are killed when the team’s cargo plane crashes, making it the worst accident in Thunderbird history.