I was a witness to this crash. The 130's were doing touch and go training sorties.
I was standing on the tarmac across from it. It went down on the runway directly in front of where i was standing. The 130 in front of it had touchdown and took off. This 130 was right behind. It looked like it stalled out in the wash of the previous 130. It didn't gain much altitude. The belly wasn't too far off the runway (maybe 20 feet). It rolled left. The left wing hit the ground. The belly slammed into the ground. Instant,massive fire. I wanted to jump in a work van to see if I could help,but none were in the immediate area. I started to run across the tarmac,but soon realized I wouldn't get there in time to be of any use. I felt horrible, small and
impotent in my inability to do anything but stand and watch it go up in flames.
One guy survived the crash with burns to his face and arms. I didn't know him personally. He came down to the shop to say farewell to his buddies before getting reassigned.
This was the first of two crashes I saw during my four year tour of duty.
As a sidenote, some of the guys I served with at Little Rock AFB were:
George Battle, George Hamilton,Jeff Villenes,Scott Petersen,Melvin Slayzyk,
Chief MSgt. Bouchard,Robert Gerkin, Glen Hendersen, Jerry Laria
Looking for info on 69-6578 61st TAS, LRAFB
in C-130 General
Posted
I was a witness to this crash. The 130's were doing touch and go training sorties.
I was standing on the tarmac across from it. It went down on the runway directly in front of where i was standing. The 130 in front of it had touchdown and took off. This 130 was right behind. It looked like it stalled out in the wash of the previous 130. It didn't gain much altitude. The belly wasn't too far off the runway (maybe 20 feet). It rolled left. The left wing hit the ground. The belly slammed into the ground. Instant,massive fire. I wanted to jump in a work van to see if I could help,but none were in the immediate area. I started to run across the tarmac,but soon realized I wouldn't get there in time to be of any use. I felt horrible, small and
impotent in my inability to do anything but stand and watch it go up in flames.
One guy survived the crash with burns to his face and arms. I didn't know him personally. He came down to the shop to say farewell to his buddies before getting reassigned.
This was the first of two crashes I saw during my four year tour of duty.
As a sidenote, some of the guys I served with at Little Rock AFB were:
George Battle, George Hamilton,Jeff Villenes,Scott Petersen,Melvin Slayzyk,
Chief MSgt. Bouchard,Robert Gerkin, Glen Hendersen, Jerry Laria