Awful C-130 Crash in Savannah, GA

[AshVX220]

Saw this on the news last night, it literally fell out of the sky and crash on a crossroads, it appears that no cars were hit, but all 9 people on board died. It must have been an horrendous final few moments for the crew.

The footage is quite awful.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/02/us/military-pla...

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

The footage is horrible.

RIP to the Crew and Pax.

[AshVX220]

It really is, must have been a major failure for it to crash like that surely, loss of all engines at least?

[TonyTony]

AshVX220 said:

It really is, must have been a major failure for it to crash like that surely, loss of all engines at least?

It was a cargo plane, the load probably wasn't secure and shifted.

There's another similar vid from a company taking US Army stuff back from I think Afghan, a car dash cam caught it taking off and it literally just fell tail end back down before it even properly took off.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

The a/c was a WC-130H Weather Recce a/c and was being delivered to Davis-Monthan AFB for storage/decommisioning. Ie not a cargo carrier.

Apparently the Captain had called an emergency and was attempting to return to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.

From the way it rolled rapidly to port and dived in, I suspect a double assymmetric problem below VMCa2 (Double Engine Out Safety Speed).

Edited by Ginetta G15 Girl on Thursday 3rd May 18:44

[Eric Mc]

It was one of the oldest C-130s still in service. The serial number was 50968 which I think indicates it was part of Fiscal Year 1955 order for the USAF. It was operated by the Peurto Rico Air National Guard.



A quick check on Hercules production reveals that the full serial is 65-0968, which makes it a 1965 aeroplane.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 3rd May 18:33

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

It's an H Model Eric.

The H Models started to be delivered from 1964 onwards and remained in production until 1996.

You can tell it's an H from the length of the nacelles housing the Allison T56-A-15 turboprop engines, coupled with the 4 bladed Hamilton Standard props.

Edited by Ginetta G15 Girl on Thursday 3rd May 18:48

[Eric Mc]

The Herc has been in US military service for such a long time the serial numbers span multiple decades.

[Europa1]

TonyTony said:

It was a cargo plane, the load probably wasn't secure and shifted.

There's another similar vid from a company taking US Army stuff back from I think Afghan, a car dash cam caught it taking off and it literally just fell tail end back down before it even properly took off.

That's an enormous assumption. The video you quote was of a civilian cargo 747, and as you say, it fell tail down, so not really similar. This Hercules clearly didn't, and as others more knowledgeable than i have said, wasn't a cargo aircraft.

[Eric Mc]

I would go with Ginetta's assumption. It's in a nose down, port wing down descent.

[AshVX220]

Have heard it was the aircraft's last flight, it was heading to Davis Monthan AFB to join the boneyard. Not sure why it had 9 people on board if that was the case, though I guess it had tech's on board to do the prep work for the boneyard on arrival.

[Eric Mc]

I'm sure it was still considered to be fully airworthy otherwise they wouldn't have flown it.

[AshVX220]

Eric Mc said:

I'm sure it was still considered to be fully airworthy otherwise they wouldn't have flown it.

Definitely Eric, this was just supposed to be it's last flight is all.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Std flight crew for that model would be 5, ie Captain, Co-Pilot, Navigator, Flight Engineer, Loadmaster.

I would imagine the 4 pax were techies, presumably to strip out kit from the a/c after it got to Davis-Monthan AFB.

[AshVX220]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Std flight crew for that model would be 5, ie Captain, Co-Pilot, Navigator, Flight Engineer, Loadmaster.

I would imagine the 4 pax were techies, presumably to strip out kit from the a/c after it got to Davis-Monthan AFB.

Yeah, I thought that must be the case. Really sad for all involved.