In one short article they call it a tanker plane, a cargo plane, and a transport plane.
BBC.
http://eng.24.kg/incidents/2013/05/03/26845.html
Plane explodes in air before crash 03/05-2013 15:02, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency , by Munara BOROMBAYEVA “Plane exploded in the air before its crash in the mountains nearby Chaldovar village,” local resident Nurlan Derdenov told 24.kg news agency .
According to him, the students have managed to shot the crash using their cell phones. When falling down, the aircraft hit a high-voltage power line. It is still not known, was it a passenger or cargo aircraft.
“The local emergency team and the police went to the scene of the accident,” he added.
I know.
Others know better, but It seems like a refueler
If it’s a KC-10, then it is all three.
The KC-135R is equipped with the newer CMF-56 engine vs. the old KC-135A with the J-57 engine, which also used water injection of 5,581 lbs 550 gallons of demineralized water on take-off. Normal take-off was to 1,000 ft remaining pull back on the stick and hope to God it flew. During the mid-1980’s we were losing one crew a year in the old steam jets. One of the reasons I volunteered to cross-train from my flight position as a Boom Operator over to the KC-10A, Extender. The average R model tanker was built as an A model 1957-1964. Considering some of these aircraft are as old as I was when I flew them (a couple even older), it is a testament to the maintenance crews and aircrew that these museum pieces still fly. I will be praying for the safety of the aircrew, but realize how bad it can be when a flying gas station impacts the ground.
No Body Kicks Ass Without Tanker Gas (NBKAWTG) KC-135A/Q/RT Instructor Boom Operator 1979-1985
Well, it could be all three if the fuel was to unloaded at the destination (fuel being transported cargo and being stored in tanks), but a better descriptor would be nice.
The cargo plane was a separate incident just the other day. It crashed on takeoff, presumably from a load that shifted aft or it wasn’t loaded properly in the first place. There is a video of it on youtube.
Multi-tasking USAF?
It was a KC-135.. Isn’t that a mid-air refueler?
“In one short article they call it a tanker plane, a cargo plane, and a transport plane.”
Why is this a surprise? The same reporter probably calls a Glock a ‘Saturday Night Special’, a ‘junk gun’ and an ‘assault weapon’, too. And in the same article, no doubt.
He probably also thinks that the Germans produce a particularly deadly version of the popular pistol and it’s called the ‘Glockenspiel’.
Because it's all three. I know, I used to be a crew chief on 135's. There were missions were we ran cargo to another base, carried passengers in seats lugged into the floor forward of the cargo and refueled a couple of fighters on the way. I've carried 80 pax and carried a load of cargo pallets stacked stem to stern.
That said, it's still sloppy writing. They should have either left it at refueller or just mentioned that it can carry cargo and pax but wasn't in this case.