C5 Military Cargo plane crashes
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C5 Military Cargo plane crashes
The C5 had a problem right after take off from Dover AFB, Delaware... they crash upon arrival back at DAFB. (This particular C5 was out of Dover). The cockpit stayed together, but was off to the left of the plane. The fuselage was split open, the tail was a few hundred yards away from the actual crash. The left engine (engine 4) was also ripped off of left wing. Thankfully all 17 people aboard survived!
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wow big plane!!! (and very fortunate crew!)
The aircraft has a tremendous airlift capacity. The Berlin Airlift required 308 aircraft of the C-47 vintage, the military equivalent of the DC-3. Seventeen C-5s could have completed the same operation, according to a fact sheet on Dover AFB's Web site.
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tomboudreau
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Gotta love the C-5. I almost got a ride in one from Rhein-Main to Dover years back, but my parents opted for the civilian DC-10 to Atlanta instead. Sure, there's not a lot to do on a C-5, but how many other civilians can say they have flown on one! My parents didn't like that argument and it was off to Atlanta we went.
Glad everyone was ok!
Glad everyone was ok!
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pojo wrote:I've loaded those planes before.... yea, they are big.... Passengers are in the back of the plane in the top of the fuselage... up above the cargo. There is 2 columns for cargo rows, and the plane opens at both ends... in the front and the back.
could that explain why the cockpit/nose was severed almost "cleanly" (for lack of a better term)?
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Aslkahuna
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For its large size, the C-5 has a very low rotate speed (about 110kt) and an even lower approach speed (90kt) which is why the impact was relatively low intensity since the aircraft was on approach. With engine problems they were probably not able to maintain speed and probably stalled. I believe that this is only the second or third C-5 to crash since they entered the inventory in the 1970's.
Steve
Steve
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nystate wrote:Gotta love the C-5. I almost got a ride in one from Rhein-Main to Dover years back, but my parents opted for the civilian DC-10 to Atlanta instead. Sure, there's not a lot to do on a C-5, but how many other civilians can say they have flown on one! My parents didn't like that argument and it was off to Atlanta we went.
Glad everyone was ok!
C5's have a tendency to break on the tarmac (no pun intended) you would have been hone way before on the DC10 then the C5. I've loadplanned several C5 that were bumped from days before... that is common.
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Aslkahuna wrote:For its large size, the C-5 has a very low rotate speed (about 110kt) and an even lower approach speed (90kt) which is why the impact was relatively low intensity since the aircraft was on approach. With engine problems they were probably not able to maintain speed and probably stalled. I believe that this is only the second or third C-5 to crash since they entered the inventory in the 1970's.
Steve
There have been four (4) C-5 Galaxy crashes in the history of the plane along with two (2) class-A losses resulting from ground fires and one (1) loss resulting from damage sustained on the ground.
Aircraft 67-0172 (C-5A) was lost during a ground fire on 5-25-1970
Aircraft 67-8303 (C-5A) was lost during a ground fire on 10-17-1970
An (unkown serial) (C-5A) was damaged beyond repair September 1971 in Altus AFB, OK when the #1 engine tore off during the take-off roll.
The first operational loss (crash) of a C-5A type happened on September 27, 1974 when aircraft 68-0227 crashed after over-running the runway at Clinton, OK Municipal Airport during an emergency landing following a serious landing gear fire, this crew mistakenly lined up and landed at Clinton Municipal (4,400 ft rnwy) instead of Clinton-Sherman airfield (13,500ft rnwy).
The most well known C-5 accident occurred April 4, 1975 with the operational loss of aircraft 68-0218. The plane, carrying orphans out of Vietnam, crashed while trying to make an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut AB Saigon, after a door lock failed in flight. The crash killed 138 of the 314 aboard, including 127 children.
On August 29, 1990, a C-5A Galaxy transport (aircraft 68-0228) took off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany in support of Desert Shield. It was flown by a 9-member reserve crew (who had all volunteered to fly the mission) from the 68th Airlift Squadron, 433rd Airlift Wing based at Kelly AFB Texas. As the aircraft started to climb off the runway, one of the thrust reversers suddenly deployed causing the aircraft to lose control and crash. Of the 17 people onboard, only 4 survived the crash. All four were in the rear troop compartment. The sole crewman to survive, Staff Sgt. Lorenzo Galvan Jr., was awarded the Airman's Medal for his actions in evacuating the survivors from the wreckage.
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Wings-level landing might have saved C-5 crash survivors
by Louis A. Arana-Barradas
Air Force Print News
4/4/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- A veteran C-5 Galaxy pilot said all 17 people survived the April 3 plane crash at Dover Air Force Base, Del., mainly because the pilot did his job.
Col. Udo McGregor said the “100 percent reason” everyone aboard survived the crash was because the pilot did a wings-level landing.
“The survivors are survivors because he put it on the ground wings level,” said the colonel, commander of the 439th Operations Group at Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass.
The transport took off from Dover at about 6:20 a.m. bound for Spain and Southwest Asia. On board were Airmen and several passengers. Base officials said the aircrew noticed a problem with the aircraft soon after takeoff and the pilot turned the aircraft around to land back at the base.
But at 6:42 a.m. the aircraft crashed into a grassy field and broke up into several pieces. Base officials think the aircraft might have struck a utility pole, which cut off the aircraft’s six-story tail section. It had a quarter million pounds of fuel, but miraculously did not catch fire.
Colonel McGregor, a command pilot with more than 10,600 flying hours -- more than 7,000 of those in the Galaxy -- said there are others reasons why the accident cost the Air Force only a transport aircraft.
One is that the aircraft -- almost as long as a football field -- has many crumple zones.
“If you watch car commercials on TV and watch them do the crash testing -- the more metal you have -- the larger the piece of equipment -- the more the chance you have of survival,” he said.
And the cargo plane has so much cargo space below its wings that a wings-level landing gives those on board “a pretty good chance of surviving,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly safe airplane,” said the colonel from Savannah, Ga. “Very, very few accidents for the millions and millions of flying hours that it’s accomplished.”
The colonel has flown all over the world in the C-5. He knows the transport inside and out. The emergency that the Dover crew faced -- a heavy weight, three-engine emergency return -- is a “pretty standard” procedure for which Galaxy pilots are well prepared, he said.
“In this particular case, the experience level of the crew would suggest they’ve done it hundreds of times -- practiced it hundreds of times in a simulator,” he said.
Colonel McGregor has had to deal with similar in-flight emergencies during his 15 years at the helm of the heavy jet. More than once he has had to land a heavily-loaded Galaxy with only three engines. But with about a million parts, many mechanical things can go wrong with the aging aircraft, which entered the Air Force inventory in the June 1970. After so many hours in the air, the aircraft is bound to experience one or two emergencies, he said.
“That’s just part of flying something for an extensive amount of time that has this many moving parts,” the colonel said. “It’s a very complicated airplane.”
The colonel remembers a flight into Osan Air Base, South Korea, when the air conditioning turbine on his C-5 malfunctioned and filled the entire aircraft with smoke. The aircrew made an emergency landing and did an emergency evacuation of 73 passengers -- who exited down the slide from the passenger compartment on the back of the aircraft.
At Dover, the aircrew also used the inflatable slide to evacuate the aircraft.
Colonel McGregor said the aircraft has a great safety record. And the upgrades through which it is going -- like getting new avionics and engines -- will extend its life “a significant number of years.”
“I would say more than 20 years is probably a reasonable guess,” he said. And with the upgrades, “it’s probably even more than that.”
The colonel said two boards will now convene to find out the cause of the accident. The first, a safety investigation board, will try to determine what the issues or problems were. They have 30 to 45 days to come up with answers.
Then, an accident investigation board will convene to “find the magic BB, the causal effect -- the things or things that caused or created the accident,” the colonel said.
The accident investigation board will probably have to have some kind of resolution to the commander of Air Mobility Command by the end of May.
“So it’s a fairly rapid process,” he said.
by Louis A. Arana-Barradas
Air Force Print News
4/4/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- A veteran C-5 Galaxy pilot said all 17 people survived the April 3 plane crash at Dover Air Force Base, Del., mainly because the pilot did his job.
Col. Udo McGregor said the “100 percent reason” everyone aboard survived the crash was because the pilot did a wings-level landing.
“The survivors are survivors because he put it on the ground wings level,” said the colonel, commander of the 439th Operations Group at Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass.
The transport took off from Dover at about 6:20 a.m. bound for Spain and Southwest Asia. On board were Airmen and several passengers. Base officials said the aircrew noticed a problem with the aircraft soon after takeoff and the pilot turned the aircraft around to land back at the base.
But at 6:42 a.m. the aircraft crashed into a grassy field and broke up into several pieces. Base officials think the aircraft might have struck a utility pole, which cut off the aircraft’s six-story tail section. It had a quarter million pounds of fuel, but miraculously did not catch fire.
Colonel McGregor, a command pilot with more than 10,600 flying hours -- more than 7,000 of those in the Galaxy -- said there are others reasons why the accident cost the Air Force only a transport aircraft.
One is that the aircraft -- almost as long as a football field -- has many crumple zones.
“If you watch car commercials on TV and watch them do the crash testing -- the more metal you have -- the larger the piece of equipment -- the more the chance you have of survival,” he said.
And the cargo plane has so much cargo space below its wings that a wings-level landing gives those on board “a pretty good chance of surviving,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly safe airplane,” said the colonel from Savannah, Ga. “Very, very few accidents for the millions and millions of flying hours that it’s accomplished.”
The colonel has flown all over the world in the C-5. He knows the transport inside and out. The emergency that the Dover crew faced -- a heavy weight, three-engine emergency return -- is a “pretty standard” procedure for which Galaxy pilots are well prepared, he said.
“In this particular case, the experience level of the crew would suggest they’ve done it hundreds of times -- practiced it hundreds of times in a simulator,” he said.
Colonel McGregor has had to deal with similar in-flight emergencies during his 15 years at the helm of the heavy jet. More than once he has had to land a heavily-loaded Galaxy with only three engines. But with about a million parts, many mechanical things can go wrong with the aging aircraft, which entered the Air Force inventory in the June 1970. After so many hours in the air, the aircraft is bound to experience one or two emergencies, he said.
“That’s just part of flying something for an extensive amount of time that has this many moving parts,” the colonel said. “It’s a very complicated airplane.”
The colonel remembers a flight into Osan Air Base, South Korea, when the air conditioning turbine on his C-5 malfunctioned and filled the entire aircraft with smoke. The aircrew made an emergency landing and did an emergency evacuation of 73 passengers -- who exited down the slide from the passenger compartment on the back of the aircraft.
At Dover, the aircrew also used the inflatable slide to evacuate the aircraft.
Colonel McGregor said the aircraft has a great safety record. And the upgrades through which it is going -- like getting new avionics and engines -- will extend its life “a significant number of years.”
“I would say more than 20 years is probably a reasonable guess,” he said. And with the upgrades, “it’s probably even more than that.”
The colonel said two boards will now convene to find out the cause of the accident. The first, a safety investigation board, will try to determine what the issues or problems were. They have 30 to 45 days to come up with answers.
Then, an accident investigation board will convene to “find the magic BB, the causal effect -- the things or things that caused or created the accident,” the colonel said.
The accident investigation board will probably have to have some kind of resolution to the commander of Air Mobility Command by the end of May.
“So it’s a fairly rapid process,” he said.
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The data I have says the approach speed for a C-5B is 135 knots....
http://www.r2ainc.com/CAFT/pdfs/Customers%20Tbl2.PDF
page 5 of 6
http://www.r2ainc.com/CAFT/pdfs/Customers%20Tbl2.PDF
page 5 of 6
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