USMC Mid-Air - F-35/KC-130
 

USMC F-35B and USMC KC-130J both down after mid-air. Jet pilot ejected and Herc forced landed with those on-board OK. About 150nm East of San Diego.

Picture here of the Herc after a forced landing in a field!
https://news.usni.org/2020/09/29/mar...covered-safely
and more pix and info from local ABC affiliate here:
https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=tws...-in-california

Glad everyone is safe

Outer starboard prop appears to be absent on the Herc

Yikes - only 1 engine looks to be intact.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6821a34e0f.jpg

And is that fuel pouring out of the port wing?

It would be interesting to know what have caused this

Left AAR pod missing
#1 prop missing a blade, others badly damaged
#2 prop possibly damaged
#3 engine severely damaged
#4 engine severely damaged
Right external tank missing
Landing gear and flaps up
Fuel leak from left wing

Very well done to the Marine aviator who managed to pull off a successful forced landing!

Possibly a 5th generation fighter...?

Brings a new meaning to having to go and hit the tanker.

BZ to the driver, that’s impressive.

First Impressions
 

When I read the first post that said ‘forced landing’ I tutted to myself and thought ‘you mean he made an emergency landing’.

It would appear I was wrong to tut. That really does look like a forced landing.

A lot of the damage may be attributable to the forced landing itself of course but either way that looks like a hell of a bit of skill and decision making to land such a badly damaged aircraft in such a location.

BV

There does seem to be quite a debris field behind the left wing.

Let the PPRuNe BoI commence!

Can a Herc fly on one Engine?

The background scenery could well be the propellor blade removal culprits.

Could be the perspective of the photo. It appears that the Herc veered to the left so the debris may be from the fuselage itself.

The answer being the same to the question posed of the RAF Anglo French pussy cat. The remaining engine will simply take you to the scene of the crash.

I doubt that pilot will need to pay for any drinks for quite some time, great job indeed.

Does anyone know what time the accident occurred, night time refuelings between FJs and Hercs are notoriously risky, witness the 2018 crash off Japan.

Yes, I just meant some bits might have been knocked off in the landing rather than the collision.
From the audio it appears they'd lost engines 3&4.

And in line with the furrows,text book!

More here https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-with-an-f-35b

Link posted in OP says 4pm local time.

Outer Tank is no longer fitted....

Thanks, that answers one key question.

Glad everyone is safe. There's an opportunity for Marshalls/MOD to flog another C130J to the US now!

What happened to the F-35 pilot - and what happened to his aircraft?

Pilot elected to eject, and news is he's safe.
F35 made a smoking hole (based on news clip).

A C130 glider, the pilot did well to keep the wings level and find a soft field without obstructions, so lucky the controls surfaces weren’t a
damaged.

Audio with captions and chart of the area

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7c405faaf3.png

Lucky they were in the Salton Sea area which has a lot of flat fields rather than over the high desert.

Can't comment on the authenticity of this:

Twitter

Appears to me they lost engines 3&4 in the collision - the damage to the #1 prop and loss of the right hand underwing tank were from the forced landing.
Even if there was sufficient thrust to maintain level flight with two engines out, controllability with two engines out on the same side is problematic - perhaps more so due to the loss of various systems due to the engine damage.

That's a pretty expensive mishap. I wouldn't like to have that deducted from my pay.

/notasamod

As regards this post: any landing that you can walk away from.
Nice job.

Well I'm pretty certain its not CGI, but I who knows if its the F35 involved in this incident. From the looks of it another few hundred yards and those witnesses could have been in the debris field.

Amazed there's almost always someone videoing on their phone.

A glider in Thermal... Couldn't ask for more! :)

Going to require a lot of explaining how the tanker got clobbered from the front.....

Hopefully, not going to be one of those close to the bay ramp for a photo op moments....

Plenty of cameras, so if it did happen in refuelling there will/should be video.

I'm not sure why it needed to have been clobbered from the front? As all crew survived and the investigators will have access to the wreckage and data, there should be some answers coming out quite quickly. Hopefully the USMC will post the interim report on PPrune. ;)

What a fantastic job from the Herc crew - a great example of flying the aircraft all the way to impact and walking away as a result. BZ to whoever was flying, and I look forward to the sequel to 'Sully'!

Marham ans Mildenhall
 

I saw 6765 on the deck here at EGUN fortnight ago on the 12th (my photos below) it initially came into Marham as support for Wake Island Avengers deployment , then supposedly departed. Next thing it was on the deck at Mildenhall having gone U/s. After a while it left finally on the 15th


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....47ce093bf.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....040f63489.jpeg