Herc landing accident in Iraq - BBC report

[lampeterexile]

Fixed loads of snags on her in the past. She also took me on a few nice routes RIP

[N Joe]

Smart_Chap's comment about 2nd line repair teams and spares needs to be kept in mind when we not only procure our next ac, but also when we civilianize more 2nd, 3rd & 4th line engineering organizations. I'm sure if we could have guarded the ac for just a couple of months, the IPT could have written a business case to raise a PDS task to ask Lockheed to design a repair for Marshall's to go to Iraq and embody!!???!!

Top use of library pictures on local BBC news - XV177 taxiing around.

Glad to hear no serious injuries.

N Joe

[MLT]

Flight International - 'Runwayside bomb' new threat as UK defence ministry blames improvised explosive device attack for RAF C-130J Hercules loss in Iraq - here.

[fabs]

A couple of years ago we had an Air Traffic Controller based near a strip in Maysan Province. Part of their tasks was to check for Runwayside IEDs etc. Don't know if it is still the case, it's been a while since I've been there.

[propulike]

That sounds like a $#!t job! Driving up and down in a landrover looking for something designed to take out an aircraft?

Or are you really going to surprise me and say the MoD provided a different vehicle for the task...

[fabs]

Or are you really going to surprise me and say the MoD provided a different vehicle for the task...

No surprises, it was a pink L110 landrover (I think) that needed a bump start about 50% of the time, the MT section at Abu Naji seemed to spend more time working on that than their own warrior vehicles.

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Did they not in the dark days of old buy enough to allow for attrition throughout service life?

Maybe, but I'm guessing (forgive me if I'm wrong) that the planned attrition rate was somewhat below 4 per year...

IIRC (and again, apologies if I'm mistaken), until the one lost in the Balkans, there had only been one Herc lost in recent memory (the one in the Highlands). In the last couple of years, there have been at least four.

Just goes to show how hard the Herc guys (and girls - in between press interviews ho ho) are working - great job you do despite the difficulties and dangers, long may it continue.

[SKYCOOK]

ref dropped a pencil on finals

A little harsh, Credit to pilot and crew for ensuring all got out alive in what is one of the scariest landing grounds in theatre.


To pilot and crew, thank God all alive.