Indian Air Force investigating C-130J crash

On March 28th, a C-130J belonging to the Indian Air Force, operating as the second of a two ship formation, doing low level training impacted a river bank, and exploded killing everyone on board. The two pilots were the squadron second in command, and a pilot being trained in low level flight. The aircraft was the third of six J models delivered to India starting in 2011, and was designed to operate in low level environments.

It's only the second crash for the type. The first was a Norwegian C-130J that crashed into a mountain enroute to pick up troops after an exercise.

A stunned Indian air force (IAF) is struggling to piece together perhaps its most perplexing accident. On March 28, the second C-130J Super Hercules in a two-aircraft formation fell out of the sky and crashed on a riverbank in central India.

Among the five men killed in the crash were the squadron’s second-in-command and a trainee pilot who was being supervised on low-level maneuvers.

Several factors have dumbfounded the air force: the aircraft was virtually new compared to the rest of the transport fleet. It is easily the air force’s most advanced transport plane, specially kitted for special operations and low-altitude maneuvering. And this accident is only the second crash of the J-model aircraft — the last was a Norwegian Super Hercules that plowed into a mountain in 2012.

“A fully proficient crew was flying a new and advanced aircraft in tip-top condition. There were no weather-related factors, and no distress call. There is no visible reason why this aircraft crashed,” says an officer at air headquarters. “Margins of error are strictly enforced in all training flights. This may be the most difficult accident for us to digest in recent history.”

AvWeek

India has an air force??

Hope the investigation goes well!

reply to post by six67seven


They have a remarkably good air force. They handed some US F-15 pilots their head in a training exercise a few years ago.

Is waiting for anti-indian shills to invade.....

six67seven
India has an air force??

Hope the investigation goes well!

Do you Know Where India was in the Map..!!

at Now ..IAF begins 'analyzing' data extracted from black box of crashed C-130J plane

reply to post by Zaphod58


I think the USAF learned quite a bit from that experience and the increased F22 1v1's the F15 drivers got after that when they saw the SU30MKI's again.
Roles were pretty lopsided the other way when IAF came to Red Flag 08' from what I heard anyway.

reply to post by Sammamishman


It made a HUGE difference who they were up against too. It was a line unit in India. At Red Flag it was the Aggressors.

reply to post by Zaphod58


So are any of your thoughts on the matter 'out of the box', or, are you thinking 'strange & unfortunate accident'?
Seems strange (& unfortunate) to me...but, obviously, raises some question marks.
All parameters were for 'training' mission - does that mean, it was 'daytime', as well?
In other words - if it was day time, you wouldn't think the issue would have been faulty instruments or instrument readings...(?)

Sorry for the families.

reply to post by WanDash


Something odd happened looking at the wreckage. The tail was completely upside down, and the few pictures I've seen shows little evidence of fire.

reply to post by Zaphod58

It's kind of funky - At first they say that margins for error are strictly enforced for training missions... Then suggest that the 'controls' (that maintain those margins - I presume) may have been overridden, to test the pilot's ability to do the exact opposite.
Sheesh!
Reminds me of when I was learning to drive a big rig.

reply to post by WanDash


The override is a good idea, but at higher altitudes at least at first.

I know what you mean. At school it's "don't do this". Then you get on the road and find out you're nuts if you don't.

reply to post by six67seven


India has a top of the line military with good kit and good men. They are the real deal.

Zaphod58
reply to post by WanDash

 

Something odd happened looking at the wreckage. The tail was completely upside down, and the few pictures I've seen shows little evidence of fire.

Maybe something like this could of happened ? I know this video is an older c-130 is there any record or the J's having issues around the wings ? Warning it is a video of a crash I'm not sure if that breaches t&c's

reply to post by ThePeaceMaker


There haven't been any reports of problems of any sort really with the J. The usual growing issues with what's essentially a new airframe, but even those, for the most part were "this would work better if we moved this clamp over here" type things.

The aircraft is almost three, which means at least one PDM by now. If they have the same crew that works in the US shops that opens quite a few possibilities.

It looks like the tail hit first, and broke off, and the rest of the aircraft impacted and exploded, and burned down into very small pieces. The CVR/FDR have been decoded by Lockheed Martin, and the data turned over to the Indian Air Force. Preliminary data seems to show that there were "inadvertent errors" leading to a low level stall. They were in trail with another aircraft, and had slowed to simulate dropping paratroops out the aft cargo door over the drop zone.

The Crew

six67seven
India has an air force??

Hope the investigation goes well!

Hubris.. must be a wonderful feeling of joy and plesaure.

How is the budget cuts going along? Still on schedule? What about the new fighters jets, still on schedule and under budget?

It is comments like yours that make your country a laughing stock frankly.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Oops probably flying behind the power curve with a turbo prop aircraft.
Tricky manoeuvre and really not much or nil margin of error.
My condolences to the affected.

reply to post by Nochzwei


It sounds like they dropped too low when they reduced speed. Got behind the aircraft. One of the other angles shows the cargo door is partially caved in, which means the aft fuselage hit the ground. The fact that the tail is intact when there is absolutely nothing else recognizeable means it hit hard enough to break it off.

reply to post by Zaphod58

As on a training flight, the plane would have been empty.
So it had plenty of reserve power/thrust available.
Seems to me a control surfaces problem. Probably jamming of
elevators/ailerons

reply to post by Nochzwei


One of the pilots was training for low level, and they were talking about overriding the controls to make it easier to fly at that altitude. It's very easy to get behind the aircraft at that altitude, and start to chase it. The problem is when you chase it that low, you better catch up fast or you're in real trouble.