USMC KC-130 Crash, Fatalities

[habu2]

The U.S. Marine Corps Twitter account posted that "A USMC KC-130 mishap occurred the evening of July 10. Further information will be released as available." 

 

The plane went down in LeFlore County near Jackson Mississippi, a crew of 16 aboard, no survivors. No mention of the unit/wing.

Edited July 11, 2017 by habu2

[tosouthern66]

My condolences to the families and friends of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. RIP Marines we will never forget your sacrifice to keep us free.

[pookie]

It looks like it broke up in mid air.. RIP.

[11bee]

Has the accident report or any preliminary findings been released yet?   It was a major accident but since then, it's pretty much been dead air.   I didn't find anything on Google.   Highly unusual when a reliable aircraft like a C-130 comes apart in mid-air. 

 

Has anyone seen any reports on this?

[Waco]

They’re not going to be posted.  It was unlikely before, but the recently released DoD policy on OPSEC makes it even more unlikely.

[Hoops]

The safety report came out a month or so ago, you won't find it anywhere open source.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Hoops

[11bee]

Interesting.  We'll see how this plays out. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by 11bee

[11bee]

So much for OPSEC and other measures to keep this info out of the public view.   

 

Findings have been released.  Cause was gross negligence on the outfit doing the prop overhauls, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (an AF run, civilian staffed organization).   Appears that they never performed the prescribed inspections that would caught corrosion issues with the prop blade that eventually failed and caused the crash.   This organization sounds like a total cluster-f***.   It appears that no one will be held responsible for the deaths of 16 American service members because all paperwork associated with the work on that blade was discarded.

 

Appears to also be culpability on the Navy for lack of any functional oversight of the work these people were performing on their propeller blades.  

 

The entire episode is disgusting.

 

https://www.militarytimes.com/2018/12/05/investigation-blames-air-force-and-navy-for-systemic-failures-in-fatal-marine-corps-c-130-crash-that-killed-16/

[GreyGhost]

Wow !

 

-Gregg

[Dave Roof]

A video reconstruction of the accident. What an absolutely horrifying thing to go through. My heart is broken for my fellow Marines, Sailors and their families.

 

https://news.usni.org/2018/12/06/kc-130t-accident-report-video-reconstruction?fbclid=IwAR00cNfQs95TvhYwW8k-4hQJr2EinEFSvH1aTFroI3fjiNYddDvEzvUONC0

[Dutch]

Yes!  RIP my fellow warriors!  Our country has failed again. 

[11bee]

2 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

A video reconstruction of the accident. What an absolutely horrifying thing to go through. My heart is broken for my fellow Marines, Sailors and their families.

 

https://news.usni.org/2018/12/06/kc-130t-accident-report-video-reconstruction?fbclid=IwAR00cNfQs95TvhYwW8k-4hQJr2EinEFSvH1aTFroI3fjiNYddDvEzvUONC0

That video is tough to watch.   Horrifying to think what those poor guys went though.  I truly hope for once that someone will be held accountable.   This wasn't an act of god, it was by all accounts, pure negligence.   Those 16 service members deserve it.

 

It's also pretty messed up that apparently the military was trying to keep this info out of the public view due to OPSEC issues (if you believe what other folks posted previously).   The only reason for suppressing this information is because the military didn't want the bad press.  

[Waco]

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how military aviation mishap investigations occur.  There are two reporting channels, one for safety reporting, which is non-punitive and intentionally designed to capture important flying safety lessons, share them, and prevent future mishaps.  These reports are never made public, and it is—in fact—a criminal act to release them.

 

The second is an accident/mishap/incident investigation, which is designed to ascertain blame, fault, or negligence, is punitive in nature, involves lawyers and the reading of rights, and from which some type of report is always published.

 

The report you’ve cited falls into the latter category.  Of note, the two types of investigations often come to differing conclusions, and due to the vastly different natures of their raison d’etre, have access to different information.

 

 

[11bee]

2 hours ago, Waco said:

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how military aviation mishap investigations occur.  There are two reporting channels, one for safety reporting, which is non-punitive and intentionally designed to capture important flying safety lessons, share them, and prevent future mishaps.  These reports are never made public, and it is—in fact—a criminal act to release them.

 

The second is an accident/mishap/incident investigation, which is designed to ascertain blame, fault, or negligence, is punitive in nature, involves lawyers and the reading of rights, and from which some type of report is always published.

 

The report you’ve cited falls into the latter category.  Of note, the two types of investigations often come to differing conclusions, and due to the vastly different natures of their raison d’etre, have access to different information.

 

 

Previously I asked if the accident report or any preliminary findings had been released.  I was informed that they would likely not be released due to DOD’s new policy on OPSEC.  

 

Maybe it’s a question of semantics but it was the latter report I was asking about, not the former.   Thanks for providing the additional information though, I wasn’t aware of that other report.  

[ikar]

A long time ago my wife's C-130 returned with a mialigned crgo ramp and gound damage.  M.A.C. HQ. sent a accident investigation team down to find out what happened.  On its way the pilot of the T-39 reported a in-flight emergency.  He was informed that the hard runway would be foamed and to put it down there.  For some reason the pilot set the utility aircraft down in the grass between the dirt strip and the foamed one.  This meant that M.A.C. had to send down two more teams , one for the Herk and the other one for the T-39 since the first team was now considered witnesses and could no longer be used.

 

I had heard that when a investigation is started, anyone with access to that aircraft could be called in for questioning, and their records would be gone over, sometimes all the way back to how they did in their particular Air Force schools.