Eleven dead as US plane crashes at Afghanistan airport

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

An American C-130 transport plane has crashed at Jalalabad airport in Afghanistan, killing six crew members and five civilian contractors, a US military spokesman said on Thursday.

“The crew and passengers were killed,” US Army Colonel Brian Tribus said. There were no reports of enemy fire at the time and the incident was under investigation.

The incident took place at about midnight (1930 GMT on Thursday).

The contractors had been working for “Resolute Support,” the NATO-led training mission.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/ten-die-as-us-plane-crashes-as-afghanistan-airport

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Reuters
Friday 2 October 2015 02.21 BST

[shenmue]

1. ...

[TwilightGardener]

2. Terrible.

[DashOneBravo]

3. Rest in peace guys

Time to get out of there

[mpcamb]

7. Let's get out of there.

Let's figure it out.
There must be a way.

[herding cats]

4. My heart goes out to their loved ones.

[happyslug]

5. I read a report that many of the US C-130s are over due to be replaced

The big fear is metal fatigue,

In 2002 two 45 year old C-130s crashed do to metal fatigue:

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/sep/25/local/me-walker25

There have been question on the C-130 since the 1990s, these planes are nearing the end of their service life and should be scrapped and replaced by newer C-130s.

Currently, the critical fatigue component for the C-130 fleet is the center wing box, which is structurally more susceptible to the stresses of mission profile and payload. The center wing box has a limit of 60,000 relative baseline hours (flight hours multiplied by the mission severity factor).) A corrosion limit of 40,000 flight hours is based on historical data and engineering judgment. It considers corrosion factors not considered in airframe fatigue analysis. Actual airframe service life depends on which limit, fatigue or corrosion, is reached first.

The average age of the active duty C-130 fleet is over 25 years old, while the average age of Guard and Reserve C-130s is 15 years old. The average age of the C-130E model is over 28 years and average flying time is approximately 19,800 hours; the newest E-model being produced in 1972. Based on projected operations tempo and overall mission severity, C-130E aircraft have an average remaining service life of 15 years. Material solutions such as selective repair, a service life extension program (SLEP), or procurement of new aircraft are several ways to influence and resolve aging of the C-130 fleet.

The service-life of the HC-130N/P is based upon the aircraft's wing box and operations tempo. Based on the current operations tempo, the fleet will begin to lose airworthiness in 2013.

http://fas.org:8080/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-130.htm

The HC-130 is a search and rescue version of the C-130 that are undergoing extensive rebuilding do to a need to upgrade the capacity of the older HC-130s but also to replace those metal parts subject to the most metal fatigue.

I bring this up for it is concern when it comes to the C-130s for Congress is quick to buy new Fighters and New Jets, but has a tendency to ignore support elements with little glamor like the the old but reliable C-130s.

[daleo]

6. It looks like this happened before the hospital bombing

It raises the question of whether these events are connected.