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C-130J Hercules Drops Refueling Hose on House
I might suspect human error was involved
Military plane drops part on San Diego home - U.S. news - Life - msnbc.com SAN DIEGO — Military officials say nobody was injured when a refueling hose fell from a Marine plane and landed on a house in a San Diego County neighborhood. Maj. Jay Delarosa of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar says investigators will try to determine how the heavy-duty retractable rubber hose became detached from a C-130J Hercules late Saturday morning. The house in Carmel Mountain just north of the Marine base sustained roof damage. It's unclear whether anyone was inside at the time. Delarosa says there was likely a small amount of jet fuel in the hose. San Diego hazmat crews and Marine Corps recovery teams are on the scene. The mishap occurred as the annual Miramar Air Show attracted tens of thousands of people to the Miramar base. |
In terms of managing the fallout from this, it's worth remembering that In March 2009 an F-18 of the USMC crashed into a house on approach to MCAS Miramar after the pilot had ejected. The crash killed 4 people across 3 generations who were in the house. The resultant inquiry determined that decisions by the pilot and the entire Squadron Ops staff, including the CO, were fatally flawed in trying to recover to Miramar over a heavily populated suburban area while overflying NAS North Island requiring an approach over the ocean on the way. Additionally the maintenance fault on the fuel system that led to the accident was mishandled.
Marine jet crash into San Diego house attributed to string of errors - Wikinews, the free news source Jet crash caused by poor maintenance, errors, Marine investigation concludes - Los Angeles Times |
In terms of managing the fallout from this |
You might suspect human error is involved anytime a human is involved. However, if you knew a lot about the failure modes of refuelling hoses and the system used on KC-130Js in particular, you might suspect human error less. |
I might suspect human error was involved |
Human error does cause 80% of accidents.
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Accidents cause a lot of humans, too.
This one brought the hose, sorry, house down. |
Having seen the Wing AAR Pod Panel used by certain nations, one of the first recommendations I made was that the panel in the A310MRTT should have wire-restrained safety covers over the hose jettison switches.....:eek:
It now has. Where possible, the RAF always trails and winds hoses over the sea. If not, then within approved AARAs. But never over densely populated areas..... MCAS Miramar is only a couple of runway lengths from the Pacific. Did the USMC trail and wind over the oggin? If not, then why the heck not? |
The answer is in the press statement , it was the annual airshow. So i guess they wouldnt normally trail over a built up area .
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In the early Valiant days we lost a few hoses which trailed and then broke off. This was due to the very poor brake system in use at that time which was not sufficiently strong to hold the hose if it trailed too quickly. In one incident the hose fell off close to a Maltese farmer who was most upset, got us an extra 3 days in Luqa for a B of I, lost a trip to Nairobi though. The hose had been trailed over the sea but waited until the approach to Luqa before it fell off.
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sounds like Chivenor in the early eighties, when a Hawk gun target banner tug released its banner over the airfield,however its release was delayed for some reason by about thirty seconds with the banner crashing to earth through an irate locals greenhouse in Braunton village about a mile down the road
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"Well, we can afford to have a house built on cheap land near an airbase".....:suspect:
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I've posted this elsewhere recently, but one of our Victors lost a hose on a night RAF Germany towline c1972 (sod's law one of the few overland towlines). Was found in gardens in the suburbs of Bremen. There wasn't much damage caused and there was no particular comeback as I recall. The only one I remember, but the above posts show this wasn't a unique occurrence.
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Originally Posted by Tankertrashnav
I've posted this elsewhere recently, but one of our Victors lost a hose on a night RAF Germany towline c1972 (sod's law one of the few overland towlines). Was found in gardens in the suburbs of Bremen. There wasn't much damage caused and there was no particular comeback as I recall. The only one I remember, but the above posts show this wasn't a unique occurrence.
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I'd love to see that one. Is there a link to it anywhere by any chance?
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Reminds me of the occasion on 90 Sqn. circa 1964 when a Valiant had a hose that would not retract, he flew low down the runway at Honington while we chased it in a landrover to signal when the hose jettisoned. After a few attempts the hose was seen to be missing, and the crew reported it had detached roughly about A flight at the end of the airfield. We searched most of the night without success, eventually it was reported in a garden near Thetford a good 5 miles away! Incidentally during the early days of fighter refuelling we had a few cases of the probe shearing of and remaining in the Drogue (a design feature). These were removed, a red ribbon tied around it and posted back to the receivers squadron with a suitable greeting card.
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On 214 these probe ends were much sought after paper weights/desk ornaments and were never admitted to have been still stuck in the drogue when the a/c landed.
The breaking off of probe ends wasn't as common after the probes were modified to the 'tulip' pattern from the original flat ended design. We did seem to collect many more from fighters than we had from training the bomber crews. I wonder what that implies about fighter Jock's? |
During the TV recording of the last Vulcan bombers of 44(R) Sqn landing at Waddington in 1984, an Emergency was declared for a Vulcan K2 coming in to land with hose trailed, it fell off as the aircraft flew over the threshold.
Apparently it had trailed but refused to wind in, the aircraft flew over the North Sea ranges and jettisoned it, it was held in situ by ice, as the aircraft returned to Waddington, the ice melted. The rest, as they say, is history. Although I do remember the station Radiatio Safety Officer having the heebie jeebies over the possibility of broken Beta Lights from the basket, as the groundcrew rapidly collected the hose onto a bomb trolley to get the runway open for the rest of the aircraft to land. |
I was tanking off a Victor once doing a conversion exercise where the nose gunner had to plug and un-plug several times. During one un-plug he (OK we) were a tad quick and put the HDU brake on.
'Step aside and we'll re-trail the hose ' came the Victor's voice. We duly moved to the left (as we did in those days) and the hose wound in, wound out and promptly fell off! Really pleased we'd stepped aside 'cos at the time it seemed like a waste of a perfectly good waiting position! |
I flew the last ever tanker sortie in a Valiant and on that occassion we left the drogue on a Lightning. The open hose, all the valves being in the drogue assembly, put out one, if not two, of his engines and he lost a lot of height getting everything going again. His landing back at Leconfield was not helped by the drogue stuck to one wing during a crosswind landing.
Honington was having its runway done, so as we landed at Marham I could see that a bomber Valiant had been stopped at the holding point by a senior officer in his Standard Vanguard. A Marham bomber landed shortly after us and so operational Valiant flying came to an end. |
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