Lockheed C-130 Hercules

The aircraft departed Milwaukee-General Billy Mitchell Airport on a flight to Howard AFB, Panama City, with an intermediate stop in Tegucigalpa, carrying 10 crew members and a load consisting of foods and electronics. At Tegucigalpa-Toncontin Airport, the aircraft landed 2,000 feet past the runway threshold in a 50° flaps down configuration. Unable to stop within the remaining distance, it overran and crashed on a road and a bridge, bursting into flames. Three crew members were killed and seven others were injured.

The aircraft was completing a flight from Dezful to Mashhad, carrying 80 passengers and eigh crew members, most of them soldiers, officers and family members. While descending to Mashhad Airport, the crew informed ATC about the failure of an engine. Shortly later, the aircraft struck the slope of a mountain located in the Mashhad-Neyshabur Mountain Range. The wreckage was found about 24 km west of the airport. All 88 occupants were killed.

Based upon digital flight data recorded (DFDR) information, the mishap aircraft departed Portland IAP at 1720 PST on 22 Nov 96 on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight en route to North Island Naval Air Station. The purpose of the sortie was to conduct an overwater navigation evaluation. King 56 began the sortie with a normal takeoff, departure and climbout. One hour and 24 minutes after takeoff in level flight at FL 220 the mishap sequence began with the engineer commenting on a torque flux on the number 1 engine. Nothing on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the DFDR, or the survivor’s testimony suggested any unusual events prior to the engineer’s comment. Over the next three minutes, the operations of all four engines became unstable and eventually failed. Crew actions during these critical three minutes are known only by verbal comments on the CVR and the survivor’s testimony. The following discusses what we know of those actions. The engineer called for n°1 propeller to be placed in mechanical governing. This would normally remove electrical inputs to the propeller through the synchrophaser. The pilot then called for all four propellers to be placed in mechanical governing. This action was consistent with treating this emergency as a four-engine rollback. There is no indication on the DFDR or the CVR as to whether or not the crew selected mechanical governing on any of the remaining three propellers. At the same time the crew was analyzing the emergency, they also declared an in-flight emergency with Oakland ARTCC and turned the mission aircraft east to proceed toward Kingsley Field, Klamath Falls, OR, approximately 230 miles away and approximately 80 miles from the coast. The Radio Operator radioed the USCG Humboldt Bay Station and notified them of the in-flight emergency. During the turn toward the shore the number 3 and number 4 engines once briefly recovered most of their torque. These increases are recorded by the flight data recorder. When the RPM on number 3 (the aircraft’s last functioning engine) finally decreased below 94% RPM the last generator producing electrical power dropped off line due to low frequencies. As a result, at 1846 Pacific Standard Time all electrical power was lost. After a brief period, power was restored to the equipment powered by the battery bus. From this point on, the aircraft glided to the attempted ditching. There is no record of that portion of the flight, except the survivor’s testimony.The outboard wing sections and all four engines separated from the center wing section that in turn separated from the fuselage. Subsequently, the engines and fuselage went straight to the ocean floor at a depth of approximately 5500 feet. The outer wing and the center wing sections floated on the surface for several days and sank more than 50 nm from the impact location. The radio navigator was rescued while 10 other crew members were killed.

The aircraft departed Jackson Hole Airport at 2245LT on a flight to New York-JFK, carrying eight crew members and a U.S. Secret Service agent. The purpose of the flight was to transport a U.S. Secret Service communications vehicle to New York after President Bill Clinton spent some vacations in Jackson Hole. Five minutes after takeoff, while climbing by night, the four engine aircraft struck the slope of Mt Sleeping Indian (Mt Sheep - 3,427 metres high) located about 18 km southeast of the airport. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all nine occupants were killed.

The aircraft was chartered by the Dutch Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht) to fly the Dutch Air Force's brass band from Italy back to the Netherlands. The transport plane arrived at Verona-Villafranca at 13:33. Forty passengers boarded the plane and at 15:04 the Hercules took off from Villafranca for a short flight to Rimini, where it landed at 15:31. Three passengers deplaned at Rimini and the Hercules was back in the air at 15:55 heading for Eindhoven. The Hercules descended into Eindhoven and contacted Eindhoven Tower at 18:00. Eindhoven Tower cleared the flight for the approach: "Okay, you may continue descent for 1000, as number one in traffic, for a direct final course runway 04, QNH 1027." After reported the runway in sight, the Hercules was cleared to land: "610 is cleared to land runway 04, the wind from 360° 10 knots." Possibly as a result of the presence of a large number of birds near the runway, the copilot initiated a go around. Birds were ingested by both left hand engines (n°1 and 2), causing both engines to lose power. For reasons unknown the crew shut down engine n°3 and feathered the propeller. The plane then turned left and crashed off the left side of the runway. Within seconds a fire erupted which was fed by the oxygen from the airplane's oxygen system. Some emergency exits in the main cabin were unreachable because of the fire while other exits could not be opened because of twisting of the fuselage. The fact that there were a large number of passengers on board the plane was not immediately clear tot the fire fighters. It took some 23 minutes before passengers were noted in the main cabin.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while landing at Tandil Airport. There were no casualties.

While descending to Khartoum Airport, the crew declared an emergency due to in-flight fire. Shortly later, the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed 40 km from Khartoum Airport. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 91 occupants were killed.

After departure from Boise-Gowen Field, en route to Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs, the crew encountered technical problems with the engine n°2. The crew declared an emergency and elected to divert to Mountain Home AFB. About 20 minutes into the flight, the engine n°2 compressor disintegrated. The aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed 12 miles north of Bliss. All six crew members were killed.
Crew:
Lt Col Robert Buckout, Commander
1st Lt Lance Daugherty, pilot,
Cpt Geoffery Boyd, navigator,
CMSgt Jimmy Vail, flight engineer,
M/Sgt Jay Kemp, loadmaster,
S/Sgt Michael Scheideman, loadmaster.

The crew was completing a local training at Trinidad-Jorge Heinrich Arauz Airport. Upon takeoff, the aircraft lost height and crash landed by the runway. All four occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. It is believed that the loss of control occurred at liftoff while the crew was attempting a 3-engine takeoff.

The four engine aircraft departed Rio de Janeiro-Galeão Airport at 1600LT on a flight to Belém, carrying 15 passengers and a crew of six. About three hours into the flight, while in cruising altitude, a fire erupted on board. The crew lost control of the aircraft that entered a dive and crashed in an open field located in Formosa de Rio Preto. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 21 occupants were killed.