A Puerto Rican National Guard C-130 with 9 souls aboard crashed about an hour ago during a training mission, killing 2 of the crew. The aircraft is a total loss.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/38094821/witnesses-report-seeing-plane-go-down-near-gulfstream-rd-hwy-21-in-port-wentworth

The latest news sadly increases the number of fatalities to five - RIP to them all.

Bill

Very sad by the way it went in i imagine all souls perished,  so many accidents lately makes me think twice about flying again

Sad news...also another cracked window on a Southwest flight.

I was standing on the Gulfstream ramp on the south west corner of the airport and watched the entire event. I saw from taxi out all the way through the impact. After 35 years in the aviation industry, this is the 5th major event with loss of life that I have witnessed. It really shows just how unforgiving of errors and omissions our industry is. 

Horrible thing to see it may have been a structural failure and nothing the crew could have done,  that is what makes flying scary as you could be the greatest pilot ever but have no control over the outcome

5 hours ago, GACSavannah said:

It really shows just how unforgiving of errors and omissions our industry is. 

Securicam footage shows the bird going in vertically.

What did you see, just prior?

9 hours ago, suchw said:

Very sad by the way it went in i imagine all souls perished,  so many accidents lately makes me think twice about flying again

Yes anything like this is very sad, but airline flying is now safer than it ever was! As someone who grew up during the late 50s and 60s, serious airliner crashes were commonplace but advances in technology and procedures since then have progressively changed it to one of the safest ways to travel.

Bill

Edited May 3, 20188 yr by scianoir

7 hours ago, WingZ said:

Securicam footage shows the bird going in vertically.

Wow, that security cam footage is pretty clear alright. It's a shame that there isn't any video of the actual climb out, but given what can be seen it may have stalled, then rolled over to port and became a lawn dart. May the Lord give comfort to the victim's families. RIP airmen!

Rather than a stall, it looked more like a vmc roll. As the video starts, you can see it was already yawing to the left before losing complete control and rolling over to the left. Probably an engine or propeller failure. C-130s have had issues with their propellers recently.

You may be correct Kevin. There's so few intact bits among the wreckage, it may be very difficult for the NTSB to make any determination.

I’m sure the investigators, air force for this one instead of ntsb, will find the cause. If a prop ran away on them, it can look like what you saw, since it would be like putting an engine in reverse.

4 hours ago, KevinAu said:

Rather than a stall, it looked more like a vmc roll. As the video starts, you can see it was already yawing to the left before losing complete control and rolling over to the left. Probably an engine or propeller failure. C-130s have had issues with their propellers recently.

You can definitely see the yaw. I worked on C-130’s for 24 years. Many of those years on that type model of C-130. Still find it hard to believe what happened. It was long ago we rolled a AC-130. They recovered it but the plane was written off due to over stress.  Talking to a few Herk pilots today they said it could have been a Fin Stall. A term used in the C-130 community. As far a recent prop issues, this is the first I heard of a trend. I’ll be intestested in what the accident investigation board finds. As far as the rumors of a load shift, it was headed to the boneyard so it was probably empty with bare equipment seeing we pull all the serviceable items before we ship them off. They had just taken off and low to the ground. Prayers for the loved ones and crew.

Edited May 3, 20188 yr by Wise87

> What did you see, just prior?

I'm not going to say what I saw (other than I started watching during the taxi out and finished as I ran back into the office with the smoke billowing up), because I have already given one official statement, may be asked to give another, and I don't want to compromise any thing, especially this investigation. I will say that Bill is on the mark regarding what is NOT in the video, as what is not seen is even more telling, IMHO, than what is. Though I plan to not add to the natural speculation, I would ask that every one keep the families of the 9 who perished in your prayers, if you are so inclined, as I am.

I'd say the discussion would be closed, then.

Anything that follows would be the usual ghoulish speculations.