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US tanker plane 'crashes in Kyrgyzstan after take off'
BBC ^ | May 3, 2013

Posted on 05/03/2013 4:16:35 AM PDT by cunning_fish

A US cargo plane has crashed after taking off from an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, local reports say.

The tanker aircraft had left the US Manas airbase near the capital Bishkek, officials told AFP.

The emergency situations ministry said the plane had broken into three pieces but information about casualties has yet to be released.

Seven crew members died when a US civilian cargo plane crashed at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on Monday.

Witnesses of the Kyrgyzstan crash told local media that they heard a boom and saw an explosion.

The transport plane was carrying a cargo of fuel when it disappeared off the radar near the mountain village of Chaldybar, close to the border with Kazakhstan, Reuters reported.

The US military uses the Manas airbase to maintain its operations in Afghanistan.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bostonbombing; crash; kyrgyzstan; marathon; marathonbombing; tanker; tsarnaev; usaf
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To: Gritty
Possible metal fatigue as cause? Or just some other mechanical problem due to the age of these aircraft?

A responsible thing for an USAF General to do is ground all these aircraft until what caused this crash is known.

This might be over-reacting, but one saying is better safe than sorry.

But then the lives of US Service Personnel are cheap to Obama and company.

He apparently is more concerned with the issue of Gay professional athletes than the safety of US Personnel (Benghazi as an example).

41 posted on 05/03/2013 6:26:36 AM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: Springfield Reformer

That was my thought.

Even if that isn’t what brought this plane down, this gives us a picture of what the foreign enemy combatant in our White House is capable of doing to our military by arming others to do the job for him (and then he can blame them and pretend he’s doing everything he can to prevent terrorist attacks while his hands are under the table giving weapons to Al Qaeda and his wife is in the hospital high-fiving Bin Laden’s son Hamza for the Boston bombing).


42 posted on 05/03/2013 6:36:18 AM PDT by butterdezillion (,)
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To: 9YearLurker

There is more to that story

Dear Ole’ Uncle has CIA connections through Graham Fuller.

Has has worked for a known front of the CIA as well

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-22/bombing-suspect-s-uncle-accused-kazakh-president-of-fraud.html

Don’t know what the Mysterious Uncle Ruslan is doing now.


43 posted on 05/03/2013 6:36:36 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: KC-10A BOOMER
Normal take-off was to 1,000 ft remaining pull back on the stick and hope to God it flew.

That's on a 2 mile long runway I presume. I used to watch them taking off while standing fairly safely by an ATC radar.

44 posted on 05/03/2013 6:39:59 AM PDT by MulberryDraw (That which cannot be paid, won't be paid.)
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To: ConservativeMan55
Ugh.

With 20,000+ manpads on the loose, we have nothing to fear with Obama as C-in-C, now do we?

[ /sarcasm off ]

45 posted on 05/03/2013 7:26:22 AM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: Gritty

Right now I’m 60/40 accident/manpad.


46 posted on 05/03/2013 7:28:18 AM PDT by txhurl
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To: Portcall24

One of the reasons I have hearing problems is the noise caused by the water injection. My first flight out of Castle AFB as a student was number 4 in a 4 ship Minimum Interval Take-Off (MITO) 12 seconds behind the tanker in front of us with 2 B-52s also flying water wagons in the lead. All we could see was black smoke until we rotated. At the time I was too young and dumb to figure out how damn dangerous that was. The steam jet would really make the earth move.


47 posted on 05/03/2013 7:31:32 AM PDT by KC-10A BOOMER (Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War!)
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To: cunning_fish

That’s because the KC-135 is all three. It has extra fuel tanks in the fuselage to transfer fuel, it has a large open fuselage inside to haul cargo, and it can have seats installed (or you can ride the horrible benches in it) to act as a transport.


48 posted on 05/03/2013 7:38:00 AM PDT by Zaphod58
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To: Moose4

They were all reengined a long time ago. The last E model (with the TF-33) is in the boneyard now as well. All that are left are R models.


49 posted on 05/03/2013 7:38:00 AM PDT by Zaphod58
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To: topher

They can’t. The USAF doesn’t have enough airlift as it is, and the -135 plays a vital role in that mission, as well as the tanker mission. With only the KC-10 to take over that would leave no tankers left to perform the mission if they grounded the -135 as a precaution.


50 posted on 05/03/2013 7:38:00 AM PDT by Zaphod58
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To: All

Well, the earlier accident was clearly load shift. You can see the plane suddenly shift to its left and then an attempt to veer back right prior to crashing.

I doubt if this accident is nothing more than a tragic accident as well.


51 posted on 05/03/2013 7:45:34 AM PDT by rbmillerjr (We have No Opposition to Obama's Socialist Agenda)
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To: MulberryDraw; KC-10A BOOMER

“Normal take-off was to 1,000 ft remaining pull back on the stick and hope to God it flew.

That’s on a 2 mile long runway I presume.”

Or more... I got to fly on a mission out of Minot in ‘70. We were to escort the Thunderbirds across the country and had a pretty full load. The calculated takeoff roll was 11,800 feet. I asked the pilot how a warm summer day would affect that. He said, “We wouldn’t make it.” As I recall, the runway was 13,200 feet.


52 posted on 05/03/2013 7:59:06 AM PDT by Old Forester
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To: cunning_fish
Manas in an interesting airbase. I've passed through there many times, but the last was probably late in '11. Good people there.

There is a Russian installation within 100 miles, I believe. The USAF guys I'd work with would tell me of occasional fly-bys of Russian fighters. Not much to do about it other than monitor and send up your own to say hello. The area is quite volatile, and our welcomed presence there is the result of money. Nobody I spoke to seems to have any illusions about the place.

I know of a few civilian airliner crew members who've been roughed up and/or robbed while overnighting in Bishkek. The local officials there are not to be trusted, and armed escorts have been necessary at times. Aviation accidents happen. The one at Bagram this week was clearly a catastrophic shift of cargo at takeoff. But as others have said, losing a plane in Kyrgyzstan is inherently suspicious for many reasons.

53 posted on 05/03/2013 7:59:29 AM PDT by Cap74 (You can disagree with me. You can attack me. Do not lie to me.)
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To: Zaphod58
It is unclear if this is maintenance or terrorism.

But there was a case in the US Navy where an admiral took his carrier task force and was in a stand down mode.

There were just too many accidents (preventable accidents, that is) happening.

They straightened things out, and then went back into operation.

This admiral, I am pretty sure, became the CNO at some time after this.

I believe his name was Kelso. And I am not sure of the time frame, but it was either during the presidency's of George H. W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

54 posted on 05/03/2013 8:09:21 AM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: Zaphod58
The USAF did this when it was found that there were airframe problems with F-15's because of age. They stood down all F-15's.

The USAF needs to have a backup plan -- of some sort.

55 posted on 05/03/2013 8:16:07 AM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: txhurl
see #4's link:
Plane exploded in the air before its crash in the mountains nearby Chaldovar village,” local resident Nurlan Derdenov told 24.kg news agency . "

56 posted on 05/03/2013 8:31:33 AM PDT by wtd
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To: topher
One thing that could be done would be to use something like the A-10 Warthog as Fighters to accompany the tanker until it gains enough altitude.

A manpad may or may not be able to do much damage to an A-10. I believe A-10's have been known to loose an engine and still fly. Plus the fact that the cockpit is kind of armored like an army tank.

But KC-10 tanker, loaded with fuel, is a different story.

Providing escort, in this part of the world, might not be a bad idea.

It is unfortunate that the KC-46 is not available today but in the future.

Maybe the air force should have put more of a priority on their beans and bullets (tankers) than their fancy weapons (F-22, F-35 programs).

57 posted on 05/03/2013 8:43:31 AM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: Delta 21

“Who was conveniently on this plane that didnt survive?”

That thought ran across my mind as well.


58 posted on 05/03/2013 9:05:04 AM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.)
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To: wtd

So we are to ‘understand’ that in an ‘uninhabited area” of Kyrgyzstan students just happen to be standing, with their cell phones handy to capture video of an American military plane break into pieces before it crashes ?


Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Not.


59 posted on 05/03/2013 9:09:43 AM PDT by MWestMom ( "I will not sit quietly and let [the president] shed the constitution." Senator Rand Paul)
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To: McGruff

Man, they just LOVE that whole “-stan” thing over there, don’t they?


60 posted on 05/03/2013 9:22:59 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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