The National Transportation Safety Board found that a National Airlines Boeing 747 freighter crashed on takeoff from Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, because the five large military vehicles it was carrying were inadequately restrained. This led to at least one vehicle moving rearward, crippling key hydraulic systems and damaging the horizontal stabilizer components, which rendered the airplane uncontrollable. All seven crewmembers were killed in the April 29, 2013 crash. An MRAP vehicle being loaded on the accident flight 29 April 2013 (Image Credit: USAF)
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There were five MRAPs loaded on the accident airplane: two 12-ton M-ATVs and three 18 ton Cougars.
The evidence showed there were an insufficient number of restraints or tie down points to restrain these vehicles, and the most that could be safely transported on the plane was one M-ATV and no Cougars.
Plaintiffs introduced evidence that the straps used to restrain the cargo were in poor condition, with some past their expiration dates, and that an insufficient number of straps were used to restrain the vehicles.
National Air Cargo Middle East provided for use of 24 straps with the M-ATVs and 26 straps for the Cougars. Boeing determined that a minimum of 60 straps were needed just for the smaller M-ATVs.
Upon takeoff from the intermediate stopover in Bagram, the restraining devices for one or more of the MRAPs failed, and the rear-most MRAP went through the aft bulkhead in the tail of the airplane, damaging flight control systems and hydraulics to the extent that the airplane became unrecoverable
https://americansecuritytoday.com/jury-awards-115-75m-families-flight-crew-killed-afghanistan/
I feel bad for the crew and their loved ones, but something is wrong here. Am I reading this incorrectly?
If I read this, they are saying there were 54 tons of Cougars plus 12 tons of M-ATVs, and it was only safe to carry ONE 12 ton M-ATV???
That they overloaded it by 66 tons??????????
I have to be reading this incorrectly. If that is the case, this was so grossly overloaded it was dangerous, and the crew just diddly-bopped into the sky with that?
I have to be reading this incorrectly.
The number of straps doesn’t tell one much one needs to
know the working load limits of the straps and attaching points.
From the wall of my old flight school:
“Like the Sea, flying is not in and of itself inherently dangerous, but like the Sea, the Air is ready to punish a moment’s inattention, the slightest degree of an attitude of laxitude or the smallest detail overlooked.”