Although this tragic incident happened in 2002, this is the first time I have heard about it.

 

Yeah, got that video recommended to me by Youtube as well a couple of days ago. Really nasty. Stuff of nightmares.

I heard about it when it happened.  Tragic loss of the crew.

Noel

Remember it at the time, there was some speculation at the time that maybe the crew had pulled up sharply from a preceding run and overstressed the wings by doing that, but from the NTSB report into the crash and the aeroplane's history. it seemed the airframe was just old and tired from cumulative stresses over the years, having been in service with the US Air Force all over the world for years. The unfortunate water-bomber crew killed in the crash were just the unlucky ones to be flying it when the centre wing box spar finally gave out.

One of the disadvantages of older, metal stressed-skin aeroplanes; they don't last forever and sometimes the fatigue which is building up in the subframe parts can be difficult to detect. Even when such things are detected, unless you have a military budget, it's often not an economical or even feasible fix. This is why buying old ex- military planes is not always the bargain it seems, and especially if you don't have rock star money to fix them up.

Apparently, the US Air Force allowed the aircraft to be sold to the Forest Service knowing that the center wing box needed replacement per the manufacturer's advice. Did they tell that to the Forest Service?

On 8/23/2022 at 6:21 PM, n4gix said:

Apparently, the US Air Force allowed the aircraft to be sold to the Forest Service knowing that the center wing box needed replacement per the manufacturer's advice. Did they tell that to the Forest Service?

The plane was transferred as surplus in a USG inter-agency transfer in 1986, then later sold to Hawkins and Powers Aviation by the USDOI.  The USAF never did wing box repairs on any of its A-model C-130s, opting instead to decommission most of them and put them into the AMARC (boneyard) to be parted-out.  This plane flew in government and civilian firefighting service for 15 years before the crash, and Lockheed Martin would most certainly have made recommendations for the (prohibitively expensive) wing box rebuild/reinforcement during its major maintenance events in addition to the recommendation being in the air force's maintenance documentation.  But it was just that--a recommendation, not an airworthiness directive that required it.

Interestingly, this plane was loaned to the CIA and operated by Southern Air Transport for four years while it belonged to the USAF, and maintenance/operations records during that period were pretty much non-existent.  The plane was likely used to operate in and out of austere fields, and undocumented events like over-Gs and hard landings on short and/or unprepared LZs could have contributed to the accumulating stress on the wing box structure.

Operating surplus aircraft on a shoestring budget in the demanding aerial firefighting environment has always struck me as a high-risk venture.  Honestly, I'm surprised there aren't more stories like this than there are...

2 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

Honestly, I'm surprised there aren't more stories like this than there are...

In July of 2012 a North Carolina Air Guard C-130 crashed fighting a forest fire in South Dakota.  In August of 2000 a C-130 crashed firing a wildfire in France.

Those were the only other two I found that crashed while fighting fires.

Noel

 

Well, what I found most fascinating was the accidental video of the wing separation.

4 hours ago, birdguy said:

In July of 2012 a North Carolina Air Guard C-130 crashed fighting a forest fire in South Dakota.  In August of 2000 a C-130 crashed firing a wildfire in France.

Those were the only other two I found that crashed while fighting fires.

Noel

 

The 2012 NC crash was chalked up to pilot error on the part of both the mishap plane and the lead plane.  They flew into a microburst when thunderstorms got too close to the fire traffic area.

https://fireaviation.com/2012/11/29/report-released-on-maffs-air-tanker-crash/