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C-130J Explosives to remove Wings?????


AJGr33n
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I was sent the following pictures through FB with the following caption:

U.S. Soldiers with the 731st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, attached to Task Force Vanguard, place explosives on the wings of an unserviceable C-130 Hercules aircraft in order to remove the wings and move the aircraft off the airfield at Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar province, Afghanistan, July 9, 2013. [u.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Elvis Umanzor]

I was wondering if anybody knew what happen?

Said way to end an aircraft's time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very debatable.

Even though I was a Herc FE (military &commercial) for many years, I think the J-model, even with the 2-man cockpit is an already proven airframe. As I mentioned in another thread, a lot of airplanes have been lost unnecessarily even with an FE & nav on board.

Don R.

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Again if they would have had a FE this probably would not have happened...

I heard (not officially) that these guys were trying to get into the airfield to AirEvac out a critically injured soldier. They made a few approaches (due to some nasty weather/winds) and the one they finally got down on ended in the Class A you see in the pics. The whole "a Eng would have prevented this" was beat to death on Facebook and the numerous Class As involving the E/H where a similar event unfolded were pointed out. I have a lot of love for the 1A1s but the J model does not and will never require an Engineer. These guys in Afghanistan tried their best to get that injured service member the needed help and I hope that will be factored in to any administrative punishment that may result once the AIB/SIB investigation is complete.

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I'd be interested to see some mishap statistics between the "J" and the legacy aircraft. I feel like that's the only "apples to apples" comparison that can be made since the C-130J was designed to not need an FE. It makes sense that more eyes are better, but there's been only 1 hull-loss of a US Air Force C-130J since they entered operational service, vs how many hull-losses for the E/H in the same time period? It still doesn't mean anything though unless you factor in mishaps/flight hours. For all we know, the J's might have been overdue for a mishap, and are fortunate everyone was able to walk away from this one.

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J has a much better safety record, but fewer aircraft flown and many advances in technology.

Not very comparable. But the J has been flying since 1995 and only 4 losses.

The RAF bird 5460 hit a bomb on the runway.

Never heard a cause of the Italian 5497 crashed in the Traffic Pattern, never heard a cause.

The Norwegian 5630 flew into a mountain.

What actually happened to the USAF one. Long? Off the side? Hard landing? Short?

Bob

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As for the cause I don't know. We got over here a just before it happened. It ran off the runway, collapsed the right gear and there it sits. One of the AR guys with us went down there to help get the tail off. Love the Army mentality, got a guy in a fall harness hanging from a crane to cut some holes about 3/4 the way up the vertical stab, then made some cuts at the base so an MRAP could pull it over so they could open up the runway. Tried getting on a mission to cann some parts from it, but higher ups thought it would be better to wait 7 days for them to come from the states.

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