AVSIM Column "Contrails" A Flight Simmers Nightmare by Dave Gillespie USCG (Retired)

Avsim published Dave Gillespie's "To Answer the Call" in November, 1999, an account of an aerial search and rescue mission in the Bering Sea. Readers may recall that Dave, now retired from the USCG, was a flight engineer on Coast Guard C-130 aircraft in Kodiak, Alaska. Now we have another fascinating story, "A Flight Simmers Nightmare," Dave's account of his personal survival in a fateful C-130 flight late in 1992. He notes that "it has taken me 10 years to be able to put this account to paper." Dave continues, "As an avid flight simmer and aviation enthusiast, I found my job in the U.S. Coast Guard as a C-130 Hercules Flight Engineer to be very rewarding. However, my 15 years and 3500 hours in the air could not have prepared me for what occurred on this particular real world flight."   "Mayday", "Mayday", "Mayday", the co-pilot shouted into the radio as we fought to maintain control of our aircraft 20000 feet over the cold waters of Alaska wondering if we were going to survive this flight. A flight that started out just as any other. January 24, 1992 was just another typical day for myself and other aircrew members assigned to Coast Guard C-130 Hercules number 1706. Our home station was Air station Kodiak located on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. We had departed Kodiak the Day before on a resupply mission to Attu Island and now were on the return trip back to Kodiak with a stop in Unalaska to pick up Coast Guard Members also heading back to Kodiak. As Flight Engineer assigned to this mission, my crewmember station was located just behind the pilot's and co-pilot's seats on the flight deck. From this station I could monitor aircraft systems in the flight deck overhead and the engine instruments up front and be ready for any potential problems that would occur during the mission. Little did I know what was about to happen would be far beyond anything that I was trained for or could have prepared for. Our departure from Unalaska was uneventful and we slowly climbed to our assigned altitude of 21000 feet with a course set home for Kodiak.   It was about 4:00 pm and as we neared 21000 feet the pilot pulled the engine throttles back to a more conservative power setting when suddenly there was a tremendous bang and vibration with the aircraft's left wing dropping slightly and a white fog instantly obscuring the inside of the aircraft. With the fog preventing me from seeing the aircraft engine instruments or other objects that would give me some clue as to what happened I could only pray that Coast Guard 1706 would stay together long enough for me to find out. When the fog began to clear, one of the pilots stated, ”look at the number three engine throttle." I looked down to see what was a blur of something moving back and forth. I also noticed the number three engine instruments indicated problems with the engine along with the moving throttle. We followed procedures and performed an in-flight shutdown of the number three engine. With the number three engine shutdown procedure completed, I needed a visual check of the shut down engine. With repeated unanswered requests for a crew member in the back of the plane to check the number three engine, I asked the co-pilot if he could look out his window and let me know that the number three engine was standing tall. The co-pilot looked out his window, then looked back at me and stated "Number three isn't even there." How much of number three wasn't there, I thought to myself in disbelief, as the rest of the crew and I finished donning oxygen masks to prevent hypoxia. The aircraft was slowly brought down to 12000 feet and leveled off above the Alaska Peninsula mountain range so we could get a better assessment of our in-flight condition. Back in the Cargo compartment of our C-130, the crew had been busy getting the Cold Weather gear and oxygen masks out for themselves and our passengers and still had been unable to communicate with us on the flight deck since the initial explosive decompression. They had been covered in the same white fog as we had been up on the flight deck and their temperature dropped dramatically as the noise inside the cargo compartment became deafening. When the fog slowly cleared enough for them to see inside the aircraft again, they were shocked at what they saw, something that the rest of us on the flight deck were totally unaware of. With permission from the Aircraft Commander, I left my flight deck station and went aft to investigate what our problem was. As I turned around the station 245 bulkhead and got a full picture of the cargo compartment, I was also shocked at what I saw. In my eyes the hole in the fuselage was huge. It was located just forward of the right wing and looked to be about 4 feet wide and about 6 feet from top to bottom. The side emergency exit hatch was gone as well as our two survival sleds and several pieces of baggage. The edge of the hole had sheet metal and insulation flapping in the wind that was now coming in through the hole and there appeared to be hydraulic fluid covering the deck of the cargo compartment just aft of the hole. As I looked through the hole to the right side of the aircraft, the condition of the aircraft reflected the seriousness of the situation. The number 3 propeller and forward half of the reduction gearbox were gone and the number 3 engine nacelle looked like it had been through a meat grinder. There were holes punched all along the side of it and the external fuel tank had a huge dent in it. The leading edge of the right wing root had also taken some substantial damage and caused our primary hydraulic system to lose all of its fluid, rendering it useless. With only one hydraulic pump in the secondary system available for flight control assist, it was critical that we find a place to land and do it as soon as possible if we wanted to have a chance at a successful outcome. I completed my damage assessment and reported to the Aircraft Commander to discuss our next move. With the passenger and crew accounted for, it was a miracle that no one was killed or injured when the propeller came off and struck the fuselage. They were seated forward of where the damage had taken place and were not in the line of the prop arc. While I had been getting a close look at the aircraft damage, the crew on the flight deck had been getting the weather conditions at various divert airfields from Anchorage Center as that would a be crucial piece of information to have. We were currently 40 miles to the southwest of Cold Bay and with a two-mile long runway and weather that was less than perfect but manageable, our decision was made to land at Cold Bay.   As we started the daunting task of preparing our damaged C-130 for an approach and landing it was becoming apparent that this was not going to be a "by the book" operation. Because of the aircraft damage we conducted a controllability check to get a feel of how the aircraft would handle in its current state. With a total aircraft weight of only 105,000 pounds and a two-mile runway, we decided on a no-flap approach and landing to avoid upsetting the aircraft structure any further. We manually extended the landing gear and with some gear indication problems on the right side we extensively inspected the right main gear for a positive down and locked position. In addition, with no nose wheel steering due to hydraulic system damage and the right main landing gear brakes not usable due to hydraulic fluid exposure and the risk of fire, this landing attempt was getting more interesting by the minute. With landing checks complete and runway 32 at Cold Bay slowly emerging out of the fog, we slowed the aircraft to computed threshold speed and hoped the right main gear would hold under the aircraft weight as its condition was still not totally assured. The aircraft lightly touchdown on the runway and settled on the struts with the landing gear holding it firmly off the runway. With all the throttles pulled up over the gate and the outboard engines put into reverse the aircraft slowly coasted to a stop about midway down the runway where I got out and performed an external inspection of the aircraft with additional damage noted before we taxied clear of the runway and the salvage efforts for the aircraft began. But that is another chapter...