[Western Phil]

"Still, to put that thing down in a cornfield, loaded, and have all 17 onboard survive? Miracle. That's the best word for it."

For a short time in the late 60s, before the plane flew, I was peripherally involved with the test track instrumentation for the landing gear load testing for the C5A. They fitted a load cart with a landing gear and drove it back and forth on sections of concrete and asphalt runways/taxiways. The rumor we heard was that the C5A landing gear was designed to operate from dirt strips. Don't know if anyone ever tried it.

[Philip_the_evangelist]

I don't know if anyone has noticed this or not, but the tail number is 40059, which is a 1984 C-5B model. I mention this because I was listening to Fox News about 08:30 this morning and they had a telephone interview with a retired General who mentioned, when asked about possible causes, that the C-5 entered service in the 1970s. Thereby implying that its age may have something to do with it. Well, OK, but this one did not enter service in the 1970s.

However, to Fox News' credit, I just heard them specifically meniton it was a C-5B.