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Looking for perspective on C-130 LAPES Accident at Sicily EZ 1 July 87


eganp
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I am writing an analysis PPT for an Embry-Riddle AU Accident Investigation Course relating to accidents caused by Human Factors at airshows. I was at this particular airshow on that fateful day acting as a Combat Controller talking with range control during the airshow. This aircraft crashed right in front of me performing a LAPES in lane #1 at Sicily EZ.

I remember that their were complaints from the nav from an earlier practice run the day prior about the pilot hotdogging. The original Nav asked to not fly the day of the incident and he was replaced by another Nav who was killed. The Co-pilot and FE survived.

I was wondering if anybody on this forum remembers this accident and can give some insight for my analysis. The original video of the accident is on U-Tube.

Thanks

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It was a s*it storm of mismanagement!!

There were numerous complaints about this pilot to both the DO and Commander who promptly blew them off (until after the crash when they got their butts lit on fire).

Several people complained about this pilot during practice for this CAPEX, Mostly about being too aggressive on the descent for the LAPES, to which mister cheese-dick pilot stated that he intended to push it even farther, which he did and we all know the result.

But that is just what I got from the accident report, reality may be different and we would have to hear from someone who was actually there to know for sure.

I never trust the AIB results 100%, too many times the reports are just wrong, there is a whole list of things I could go on about specifically on the AIB for the Gunship that went down off Kenya.

But from the film, they were dead as soon as the pilot pushed over, that was waaaaaay too much and there was really no way to recover even before he went down 50 foot. Soon after that I was in the 37th in W Germany when I got my LAPES training, it consisted of "your flying LAPES tomorrow, make sure you read chapter 29 (or was is 27) of your 55-130" and that was how I learned LAPES 10171.gif.

LAPES was really fun once you learned how to do it.

I actually have or had the accident report for this crash, but my scan on the computer got dumped in the last couple of decades and the hard copy is god only knows, my stuff is strewn between FL and IN right now and most of it boxed up. If I find it I will let you know unless someone else has it and can supply it for you.

Tony Holmes was the FE on that crash, he must have really had a jinx on his head, several years later he was on the bird that blew the whole top of the fuselage off (from about 245 to the front of the wing beam) over the Atlantic. From what I hear he wisely decided to turn in his wings after that, guess he didn't want to trust his luck any farther.

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I never trust the AIB results 100%, too many times the reports are just wrong, there is a whole list of things I could go on about specifically on the AIB for the Gunship that went down off Kenya.

I think that's true of just about any SIB/AIB, Dan. Those who were in the unit, knew the folks, and knew the facts will almost always tell you there are inaccuracies in the reports - some minor, but many times, major. Sadly, we'll often never know the real truth.

...and I remember those chapters in 55-130! ;) One was LAPES the other was SOLL and Chapter 22(?) was kept in the safe!

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I guess that is because we were so busy in the back, Roy. I don't know how many LAPES drops I made, not that many, a dozen or so perhaps?????????? Worst event i was ever involved in, well at least that I was aware of, was the load coupler smashed a big hole in the ramp, possibly because it was movin' downward and the ramp was movin' up due to porpoising. At least that is what came out of the investigation. Best I remember, it took two or three tries to get the ramp closed and locked, probably due to to some twisting. I really thought anybody who rode the front of the bus should have to come back to see just what went on. WAY COOL though!!!! And hell yeah, I would do it all again anytime... if it was with the guys I flew with back then, especially.........

Giz

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I had heard the same thing about the pilot. I also heard there was pressure from leadership that it was to happen on the first go...no "go arounds" or passover...it would come out on the first run.

I knew Tony...good friend. I was on the Rote with him in Moldyhole when the roof opened. After that, I went to Yokota in 90 and he followed shortly there after, after he got his flying status back from the accident injuries. He flew for a year or two at Yokota and then came across a flight doc that felt sorry for him..."living through a crash as well as a mid air incident and had nothing to show for it except scars and trauma". So the doc recommended him for MEB (against his wishes). It went through and left as a Sgt. Last time I saw him, he was the Sgt at Arms at the Yokota NCO Club in 94...not a bad gig but it came with SOFA status.

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I was part of the crew that was sent up to Pope a couple of days later to fly lapes for the AIB.. We were a crew out of little rock and the 50th TAS. we must have flown 4 or 5 sorties with 4 camera's in the plane and several on the ground. I can remeber aborting 2 of the drops because the ground called and said we were too low. The pilot I was with was an excellent lapes jockey and could lay em down low and smooth, didn't even get a tumble out of those m551's we were dropping.

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I was (Loadmaster) LAPES cerified at Dyess (346th) in '67 with the original reefed extraction chutes only...Then in winter of '68-'69 I TDY'd to Floridia (Eglin, I think) and got certified on 1528 LAPES before pcsing with the 346th to CCK...A huge difference between the original LAPES and 1528 LAPES. My AC was Std Eval and we almost lost the ramp not once, but twice, during the week that we were there...All worked out in the end tho...Dropped all kinds of the "legacy" CDS, both while in SEA jan to june'68 and Apr'69 to june'70... No LAPES tho...

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I was at Yokota (89-92) when Toy Holmes arrived. I flew with him a couple times and remember his burn scars; also remember his being very quiet.

At my next assignment (Rhein-Main / Ramstein, 92-95), the copilot from the crash (Mark Lenke) was in the unit. One day at lunch, he opened up and started talking about the incident--very interesting! He said once he knew they were going to crash, he covered everything he could with Nomex--put his gloved hands over his face and neck. Anything that was covered with Nomex received minor or no burns. Flying with him, he meticulously briefed everything and always wore his gloves.

I was also with him in the 327 AS at Willow Grove, PA (AFRC). He retired in 2004, and I think he flies for Fed Ex.

Mark Naumann

50 AS

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  • 3 weeks later...

I will say that when your doing LAPES everything moves really really fast.

My first extraction run I was still on the pre-extraction checklist when we were climbing out, it took a couple runs to get the checklist timing down.

We had a crew that did a LAPES run in Aviano, they did an EP on the extraction, and they ran a racetrack to do the actual extraction.

Kenny Albino was the pilot, and poor Andy Ross was the FE. They forgot a small thing on the second extraction, it became apparent when Kenny called for wheel height, and the response was "belly height". They kinda forgot to put the gear down on the second run, Andy had been upgraded to IFE that morning and downgraded that afternoon!!

There were some photos of the bird screaming down the EZ about two foot up and gear up, it looked damn sweet :) Unfortunately that jerk boudreaux confiscated all the pics he found out about, but I heard Kenny still had one he kept in his wallet :)

Best LAPES OOPS that happened while I was there in the 37th was Duke Bender, his crew was doing a triple heavy (36K triple married pallet) at Geibelstat and had an actual negative transfer on the actual run, so when they started the EP clean up and climbout the got a "load clear" from the back!!!! When it finally let loose it went out and landed in a Georg Von Opel car dealership. The Germans were kinda pissed (but I am sure they were very very well paid by the USAF)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's 4,000 lb. of sand behind an E model back in '64 at Eglin. We were developing LAPES, GPES and PLADS back then. We'd extract 6,000 lb, 3 ea. 2,000 lb plywood boxes. Started with little 15' chutes which took a while to drag the load out. I was a Loadmaster with the 4486th Test Squadron (4485th Test Wing). As per the photo, we'd get the chute out early, no reefing at first. IIRC, I'd pull the Dual Rail release handle on the green light.

This pilot wasn't real good at LAPES, came in way too high, did a go-around. Extra speed and all that prop blast finally broke the extraction straps which were around the two lower boxes. Yanked the boxes out from under the top one, and I don't think they even hit the ramp on the way out. The cube box on top was an accelerometer.

I took these photos with my first 35MM camera, only had a top shutter speed of 1/250 and no light meter. Used to keep it set for 1/250 and F5.6, just right for old Kodachrome II in the sun way back then. Sorry for the scratches in the first photo--crummy slide projector.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2529[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]2530[/ATTACH]

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On top of what Dan stated wasn't the pilot a FAIP? First Assignment IP, thus although he had total hours all of his time was not on Herks. One of the problems with training with light weight loads vs actual heavy weights it how the herk responds with the heavier weights. With a light weight training LAPES the Herk will round out and float much easier than with 20,000 more pounds of actual weight.

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  • 2 years later...

I was I was a C130 nav at Pope on that day. I lost a buddy that day. 4 of us went to Awads training together. 1 of the other 4 died in the Wyoming crash. I feel blessed to b alive. The pilot was aggressive, but within standards. The largest tactical error that day was a late takeoff which meant a 1 hr route was not flown so there was probably an extra 3 or 4 thousand lbs . of fuel on board. The aggressive approach and extra fuel provided a sink rate too large for the pilots to overcome. One can only speculate that all the brass at the airshow wanted to stay on time to display efficiency. I dont blame them.....that is why we train. Keep in mind this is what I heard happened...only the crew knows for sure..God Bless thier families.

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I was a TALO assigned to the 374th out with Marines during an ORI in 83. I watched Bill Kemmerer do a perfect LAPEs up in the Korean DMZ. Bill flew his LAPES pretty much as a short field approach to a flare. He described it as "bending the tops of the grass."

As a pilot, 3-4 thousand lbs is damned near irrelevant to the cause of this crash.

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