Posted on 07/28/2017 8:55:38 AM PDT by BenLurkin
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Marine Corps took the prudent action not to fly our KC-130T aircraft in the wake of the mishap on July 10 until further notice,”
...
The crash remains under investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration reported it lost contact with the plane when it was flying at an estimated altitude of 20,000 feet.
Andy Jones, a witness to the crash, described the moments before the plane struck the ground.
“At first it looked like an acrobatic plane, like a stunt plane, blowing the smoke out the back,” Jones said. “Then all of a sudden you realized that the smoke was coming off one of the sides of the wing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Rode quite a few of these birds back in the early ‘60s—they were a great improvement over the R4Qs!
Semper Marine Aviation!
GyG!
******
I haven’t seen any speculation on the cause of the crash. Anybody heard anything or have ideas?
I was wondering that too, usually it comes out pretty quick but this? nothing that i’ve heard.
This is from the CNN wire. In all probability, there was never a crash at all, given the dubious credibility of that news manufacturing organization.
What does the “T” variant mean for the C130?
Right after takeoff, smoke coming from one of the wings . . . catastrophic turbine failure erupting parts into the wing is most likely. Possibly sucking the remnants of a bird strike into the inlet. Other is prop failure and causing the first.
Never mind - now I see the KC-130 designation which means it’s a tanker.
Aren’t these the tankers that were supposed to be replaced?
it took off in NC, and crashed in MS... no way prop failure at takeoff would have made it that far. Something happened in flight...maybe prop or turbine failure...
Probably had to cut the maintenance budget to provide funds for Gender Reassignment Institutional Preference Education (GRIPE).
Either that or for resodding the General’s golf course.
The C-130 platform is the most reliable aircraft in the world.
Period.
Thanks for the clarification.
True that, but aren’t those six-bladed propellers fairly recent?
Variant. A KC-130T is an upgraded KC-130H.
Acft was actually at cruising altitude over the Mississippi Delta, FL 260, about 45 minutes after leaving Memphis. My guess is some sort of structural failure; the T models are the oldest tankers in service with USMC and the rest of the fleet has been grounded, suggesting they found a problem or defect that may affect other KC-130Ts.
A large aircraft like a C-130, manned by an experienced crew, should be able to survive a bird strike with little difficulty. Ditto for prop failure; it’s something pilots and flight engineers practice for all the time. The doomed tanker had a near-vertical plunge into a soybean field from five miles up. Sounds like some sort of sudden, catastrophic failure that was beyond anyone’s ability to deal with.
No bird strikes at 20,000 feet. Prop or turbine failure seems more likely. Failure of turbine rotor and containment shell cutting hydraulic lines like UA 232 (a DC-10) in Sioux City, Iowa July 1989?
yep no birds... something happened at altitude and happened fast and catastrophically... from the pic i saw it look like it came straight down, mostly intact. i mean flat not spiralling down...
http://ktla.com/2017/07/12/mississippi-marine-plane-crash-that-killed-16-troops-left-2-impact-sites/
another article ... def sounds like in flight breakup
No.
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