Crew Survives Runway Construction + Night-Vision Goggles = Harrowing Crash

By Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

Air Force Special Operations has a reputation to uphold, and so does the C-130 Hercules. The first's motto is "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere," and the second is noted as a remarkably robust airplane.

As these photos indicate, there are limits. Right now, what exactly happened is a subject of some dispute, as well as the subject of the usual two investigations (a command investigation and a safety investigation).

Here is the text of the email that's going around:

Last week one of our C-23 Sherpas flew into a US operated airfield in Iraq during the day and saw there was construction equipment on the runway. Yet there was no NOTAM (notice to airmen). A trench was being dug in the runway, and it was not marked. Its a long runway and they just landed beyond the construction. They filed a safety hazard report that was immediately forwarded to our higher headquarters and to the Air Force wing based here.

Well, it seems the construction continued and still was not marked or NOTAMed or anything. A C-130 landed on the runway the night of the 29th and didn't see the construction. It wound up going through what is now a large pit on the runway.

A few pictures are attached. The C-130 was totaled. There were several injuries to the crew and the few passengers that were on board but luckily nobody was killed. Quite the set of failures somewhere in the system regarding this improper construction and no notifications about it.

We'll let this set of pictures tell most of the story about the damage to the airplane.

What the Message Tells Us

The message appears to have been written by an Army man ("one of 'our' C-23 Sherpas" -- the C-23 is a military version of the Shorts 330, a ground-loving pig whose crew chiefs clean dead bugs off the tailgate --and it's only operated by the Army). There is a certain interservice schadenfreude in the tone of the message, also; it wasn't an Air Force man. The author of the message also didn't notice what was special about the airplane, and many Air Force types -- and even Army aviators -- would. Finally, the author of the message did not appear to have known what is going on in the runway (It appears that engineers are making a permanent repair to a bomb crater from the invasion stage of the war). Therefore, I believe that this was made by an Army groundpounder at this remote Iraqi airfield, probably an officer or NCO familiar with airborne (parachute) operations, because they know about NOTAMs.

Finally, the pictures came from an Army source, and one of them was taken from a helicopter... the only helicopters at this forward base belong to the Army.

About the Airplane

This machine, 85-0012, was built as a Combat Talon II special operations aircraft. Remember in the very beginning of the war, there was an operation in Afghanistan where you saw green night-vision footage of Rangers jumping from planes at very low altitude? They were jumping from Combat Talons. Even in these pictures of this poor, wrecked example, you can see some unusual antennae and bulges. They connect to equipment inside that helps the MC-130 do its job.

Its job is, primarily, putting commandos or agents in to places that would not welcome them. The two large blisters on the rear flanks of the plane, for example, are part of the AN/AAQ-24(V) Nemesis Directional Infrared CounterMeasures System, a device meant to decoy anti-aircraft missiles. It's an automatic system that can detect a missile launch and, if the missile is a threat, track and defeat it with a laser that in effect scrambles the missile's infrared brain. It's installed or being installed on all US Special Operations C-130s, and all Royal Air Force transports.

The large WC Fields nose of the MC-130 contains a terrain-following radar, which allows the autopilot to fly the machine in closer proximity to the earth, at higher airspeeds, than a human pilot can accomplish. The navigation and communication equipment on the Combat Talon is state of the art, and parachutists, for example, are delivered within a couple of yards of the planned drop point, at no more than two minutes before or two minutes after the planned release time.

About the Accident

Since this was an MC-130, a landing by night-vision goggles is par for the course. The reduced contrast and depth perception in the black/green world of NVGs may have been a factor in this prang.

There are disturbing rumors that the USAF is using the MC-130s in Iraq as just part of the regular supply-hauling fleet, which, at 60 planes, seems to never quite be enough to go around. If that's the case, there are several problems with it (one significant one being that there is less cargo capacity in an MC-130 -- much less, in the MC-130E -- than in a "slick" C-130, and another being cargo capacity). But this flight *appears* to have been well within the norms of C-130 operations forward.

US Army units generally prefer to travel by or send equipment via Talon because the Talon crews have more leeway for mission accomplishment and are therefore more likely to get the job done. The regular C-130 crews are excellent, but they are bound tight by many layers of restrictive regulations that often keep them on the ground while the Talons are flying.

Until we know whether the story told in the email above is true, we have no way of judging this accident -- and at best, the story is one-sided. If the crew should have known about the closed runway, then they have a problem. If their command knew but didn't pass the word, heads should roll (but it's unlikely, if the responsible heads have braid on their caps). If whoever's in charge of the airfield never issued a NOTAM, then it's their fault. If the Air Force and the Army are now pointing fingers at each other, like bratty children trying to frame each other for breaking the cookie jar, then... no one will be surprised.

But I bet every airman in CENTCOM knows about that hole in the runway. Now.

It Could Have Been Much Worse

It's unfortunate that a good plane is ruined and people injured. But the accident could have been a lot worse. The crash crew's quick action certainly helped -- look at where the fire was contained -- as did the rugged construction of the MC-130. Can you imagine what would have happened if that runway hole had been discovered by an F-16 instead...?

Several VIPs have also traveled in-theater in MC-130s, including this very machine. One of those VIPs was Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld.

And other planes frequently carry high numbers of passengers around the airfields of Iraq. For many reasons, this accident, as bad as it was, was not as bad as it might have been.

FMI: www.afsafety.af.mil