Posted on 04/19/2016 2:02:33 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
The crash of a huge C-130J cargo plane that killed 14 people in Afghanistan in October is being blamed on the misuse of a night-vision goggles case, according to a U.S. Air Force investigation report.
The flight crashed 28 seconds after takeoff from Jalalabad Airport near the Afghan-Pakistani border on October 2 as it was heading to Bagram Airfield.
Initially, the Taliban said Islamist fighters had downed the four-engine plane, but U.S. military officials immediately shed doubt on those claims.
The dead included the pilot, co-pilot, two loadmasters, two security team members and five contractors as passengers. Three Afghan guards on the ground were also killed when the plane hit a guard tower, said the report, which was released Friday.
The report revealed details of the unusual circumstances behind the crash, which it said was caused by a seemingly harmless item: a small, hard-shell, night-vision goggles case.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
this is like your hound dog getting under your gas pedal
“What happened heah?”
“Well, Colonel, I forgot to put batteries in my night vision goggles.”
“And?”
“Well, sir, I put on the goggles and everything was black, so I just figured there was nothin’ out there, and the mountain proved otherwise.”
Sounds like it should be blamed on pilot error, not the goggles case.
Preflight check of flight control would have prevented this. Back to basics and fundamentals and the simple things that kill people and destroy aircraft. Kneeboard charts and preflight-postflight checklists are there for a reason.
The video report says exactly that: Pilot error preventing the movement of the control yoke. He purposely positioned the night vision goggle case to block that movement.
Does anyone remember the airman who called Rush years ago to complain about the problems resulting from women in fighter cockpits?
He talked about how parts of the cockpit controls had to be disassembled in order to locate retrieve a “broken fingernail” in an F-16 that had been flown by a female.
He kept mentioning the “throttle quadrant” over and over.
I wasn’t completely sure about the guy. He might have been putting Rush on.
Did you read the story? The placement of the goggle case behind the yoke is “non-standard procedure” and there is nothing on the checklist to remind the pilots to remove it. It was just an oversight and what HAL would call “human error”.
The waste of lives, equipment, and treasure this “war” is inflicting on America. It’s astonishing that Americans still put up with the aimless floundering effort there.
I usually don’t watch CNN videos. Letting the scripts run on CNN risks opening a whole can of worms.
I’m a former C-130 crew member (back end, not front end), but there is a requirement on the pre-flight checklist for flight controls/freedom of movement. But, it was nighttime; they were doing an engine running off-load/on-load, and they had other stops ahead of them. Plus, they were using NVGs and cockpit illumination was low.
My guess is the pilot or co-pilot didn’t push the yoke through the full range of motion on the flight control check and didn’t feel the case behind the yoke. It happens; you’re trying to get off the ground and stay on schedule, so you go a little fast through the checklist and miss an indication of a potential problem.
That set the stage for disaster. When they became airborne and the aircraft pitched up, the flight deck crew misdiagnosed the problem and applied the wrong corrective action. The Herk stalled and crashed, killing 14 people, on the aircraft and on the ground.
A lesson learned tragically, but the mishap in Afghanistan will save other lives in the C-130 community.
There was another model of aircraft (I don’t recall which) that crashed several a few decades ago because a pilot would drop a microphone (inadvertently, of course) into a well between the control-yoke-column and the floor, preventing pulling the yoke back to stop a dive.
Yes, I read the post. The preflight check calls for a yoke check and free movement of all flight controls and setting the trim for takeoff. During the flight control check the pilot and or copilot would have encountered the yoke obstruction.
FUBAR
Ouch.
Not good “failure mode effects and analysis” on that platform.
I don’t blame you, but sometimes, it bites you right in the a$$
The surviving aircraft were ultimately modified to remove the ‘well’.
What really sucks is that in the few seconds before the plane hit the ground, the pilot probably saw the case stuck in the way of the yoke...
Preflight checks and double checks by the pilot and copilot prevent crashes that can occur from a single switch in the wrong position or setting. I worked with pilots in the simulator that religiously and routinely went through those checks even for veteran pilots as a regular practice to maintain proficiency.
Pilot error indeed.
FOD kills 14 more. (Foreign Object Debris/Damage)
But I thought they usually move the flight controls through their motions and make sure the control surfaces respond.
I don't remember the caller, but when I was in the Air Force (long time ago) the front cockpit of an F-4 had to be disassembled to a great extent looking for a lost screw or a nut.
Also, the base test pilot put an aircraft into negative g's and then grounded it until "Foreign Objects (food stuff)" were removed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.