Indonesian C-130 with 13 on board crashes on approach

An ex-RAAF C-130H has crashed on approach to Wamena, with 12 people on board. The pilot was in contact with tower controllers shortly before the aircraft impacted terrain. Australia sold five C-130Hs to Indonesia at a reduced price, with this aircraft being delivered in February.

alert5.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wamena not Wamera...FYI

There were 13 on board, along with 12 tons of supplies. There were no survivors.

abcnews.go.com...

Sad..Heavy load .....
This doesnt bode well.

The military, which suffers from low funding, has also regularly suffered airplane and helicopter crashes.

a reply to: Blackfinger

They've had some horrific crashes in recent years. Another C-130 went down last summer and killed 112 on board, including a number of military families relocating, and 22 on the ground when it landed in a neighborhood.

13 souls on board...dangit

I do love a Hercules

The aircraft departed Timika about 0530 local. They were scheduled to land at Wamena at 0613 local. The pilot was in contact with the base until 0609, when contact was lost. The wreckage was found by search teams about 0840, and the process of bringing the bodies out began as soon as it was clear there were no survivors.

www.ibtimes.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Suspect airframe, engine failure or pilot error?
Prob too soon to speculate, but like you said, an aging machine.
God speed to the crew and passengers.

a reply to: charlyv

CFIT due to weather. The H has a decent weather radar, but not as advanced as later aircraft have. And it probably didn't have the newer GPS guided terrain warning system. IIRC, before they were transferred to Indonesia they underwent PDM and some upgrades.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Terrible, that close to the runway... Probably a difficult approach even in clear weather.
You would think that glide slope would have alerted them that close, but that is a line of site system. Many airports in there probably do not have a TLS. Approaching mountains before a runway in bad weather is a nightmare.

a reply to: charlyv

They get some really nasty monsoons that hit fast. Judging from the description of the crash site, it isn't an easy approach. It sounds like they come over the mountains then drop on the runway. If they were on a visual and had a storm pop up, they might not have transitioned to instruments quickly enough.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Guys and Gals;

There is nothing worse than "second guessing" what might have happened!!!
People lost lives and families lost family members - leave it to the accident investigation team to sort out the root causes.
In my professional experience, nothing p155e5 me off more than armchair experts trying to surmise what happened.

a reply to: Gurumuka

Then you'll love this forum, because we constantly speculate on what happened in accidents. Yes, the investigators will come out with the report, but there's nothing wrong with speculation. We aren't being disrespectful about it, and don't post anything cruel or that shouldn't be.

a reply to: Gurumuka
Might as well remove all the 9/11 friends where everyone has come up with the own ideas how thousands of people died. I've learnt so much especially with aviation from this forum only due to the people you have on here sharing their views and experiences, also there are a number of experts on here who will provide better information than reading news articles. Some of these 'arm chair' experts have years of knowledge in aviation .. I'd rather listen to them than read some half assed news report.

a reply to: Zaphod58 back on topic. Zap I'm sure you have seen the water dropping C130 who's wings folding up on itself. I was wondering if the Indonesian C130 had to descend pretty quick after coming in over the mountains and with a large weight being carried on it .. Could a structural weakness in the wings been at fault here causing the plane to crash ?

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

It's possible. There were a total of nine aircraft sent to Indonesia. Four of them had to undergo extensive maintenance to return them to flying status.

us pilots....this how we get smarter...ever been in the soup on short final with a tornado goin down Royal Lane....Dallas

we have to talk about it, best if we do

I've seen that approach on youtube...two mountains

a reply to: Gurumuka

Many of the "armchair experts" you cite on here are diligent aircraft buffs that have been there and done that. You could learn something from what they say, and since you are a nube, you should also understand who you are talking to. It is well known that people die in these accidents, and there is no disrespect in piecing together the circumstances and environment in which that happened. Welcome to ATS.

originally posted by: ThePeaceMaker
a reply to: Zaphod58 back on topic. Zap I'm sure you have seen the water dropping C130 who's wings folding up on itself. I was wondering if the Indonesian C130 had to descend pretty quick after coming in over the mountains and with a large weight being carried on it .. Could a structural weakness in the wings been at fault here causing the plane to crash ?

The wing problems like that on the water bomber happened to early A model Hercs. The one that is the subject of this thread was an H model and all H models had highly upengineered wing center sections with different alloys used in the spar box and stringers and stronger beam caps.
An earlier post referred to the age of the C-130. Age is not nearly as important as hours of use and type of use, when discussing fatigue cracking, which is what got the fire bomber.

a reply to: F4guy
I did consider this after seeing how old the footage was just wasn't to sure though thanks for the heads up though