Originally Posted by
Easy Street
Besides the MAYDAY/PAN thing, another difference I have noted between the US and other nations is the stage at which tanker crews issue the clearance astern. The old and bold AAR mafia on here will be gratified to know that European tanker crews are still uniformly rigorous in waiting for joiners to be stabilised in the echelon position before issuing clearance astern. US tanker crews, not so much... my personal record (set within the last couple of years) is being cleared astern a KC-135 on first radio contact at 70 miles, with the crew seeming surprised when I asked whether I could join through echelon instead. Time and the investigation will tell whether the custom may have contributed in this case (noting the greater risk of misjudging closure on the slow KC-130) but regardless, it’s a cheese-hole that should be closed.
The C130 is a tactical tanker in the Marine Corp. As such the tanking is done under quite different conditions than strategic tanking. As a example tanking is often done as low as 500 feet AGL and often EMCON so no radio use is allowed.
It may also turn out that this accident is not pilot error. A bad basket or ruptured hose could sends hundreds of lbs of fuel down the intake. I have no idea how a F35 engine would react to that but it has created serious issues in other aircraft types. The probe on the F35 is in a bad location relative to the intake.