https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...nah-georgia-road/ar-AAwE7UR?OCID=ansmsnnews11

This is deja vous all over again for me. It was years back. I had to go to Evansville on business. We were about to land when our pilot informed us we would need to go around as there was a C130 on the runway. I looked down and could see the plane lumbering down the runway.

We landed. Upon getting off of the plane I noticed a cloud of black smoke off the end of the runway. No biggie I thought. Probably firefighters practicing. I have seen it before.

Got in the rental car and heard about a plane crash. The plane was that C130 I just saw on the runway a few minutes ago. The plane crashed into a hotel killing everyone on board along with most of the people from a small company having a meeting on the top floor of the hotel. Later I passed by the crash scene. There were telephone poles about the same height as the hotel. The poles could not have been 100 feet from that hotel. The wires were untouched. The plane must have come straight down on the hotel.

Turns out the crew was practicing failed engine on take off maneuvers. The pilot must have screwed up and not reacted in time. This was a really dumb place to practice something like this. There are buildings not a half mile from the end of the runway at Evansville.

 

It was a vertical fall. See this.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=s80q7_1525295864

 

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules developed and built by Lockheed during the mid 1950 is an old aircraft which has served well over its life. The aircraft which crashed was among the oldest still flying and was scheduled for the bone yards in Arizona. I was a 22 year old young Marine when a C-130 carried my butt into DaNang RVN during 1972. The C-130 was a primary workhorse of the Marine Corps and the NAVAIR community for decades and the Marine Corps still flys one as "Fat Albert" the support aircraft for the Blue Angels. There was a time when I made flights into NAS Adak, Alaska with a C-130 sporting skis for wheels. The last version was in production in 1998. I have no idea how many versions and variations of the plane were produced but we used them for everything including in flight refueling and electronic counter measures.

While I have no idea what went terribly wrong I wish the crew calm winds and following seas and my heart goes out to family and friends of those on board.

Ron

 

Only landed once at NAS Adak in a C130 back in 1983, summer time so no ski's for the CG plane. Landed twice with Reeve's Aleutian airways, Oct 1973 and October 1974. Once was inbound to Attu and the other outbound. Managed to land at Shemya a number of times during 1974 and 1983. Once with a KC-135 it took three days to get out of Eielsen AFB Fairbanks, mostly due to various troubles. When we did manage to take off, on day three when a couple of the mechanics who were also passengers, jumped up and fixed the problem at the end of the runway. We did two touch and go's prior to the third attempt, 35 knot crosswinds at Shemya. The ground crew said we rocked wing tip to wing tip down the runway.

I left Attu on mid tour leave, in 1983, flying RAA's Lockheed Electra, tail 68R to Shemya. While on leave, I saw 68R make news when their inboard propeller came off and went into the fuseluge.

Kodiak ... there is a mountain at the end of their runway. It's like ... full breaks the second you touchdown.

The CG still uses C-130J for long range surveillance. They ordered their 14th one last year.