C-130 Hercules fire bomber loses its wings and crashes - video

[Jon]

2002 was a terrible fire season in the United States. Not only was there widespread fire, but there were two deadly crashes of aerial firefighting planes.

Both aircraft crashed due to structural failure, and both crashes involved the wings separating from the aircraft. This was attributed in part to metal fatigue and stress cracks, of course exacerbated by the structural stress that an airplane experiences when it dumps a load of suppressant.

Extraordinarily, one of these crashes was filmed by a bystander. Here's a 14-second video of the C-130 losing its wings and crashing:

As a result of these two crashes, the entire US aerial firefighting fleet was grounded. Stricter safety inspection methods were implemented, most of the contracts for the large tankers were terminated, and aerial firefighting started to rely more on the Modular Airborne FireFighting System.

Full NTSB report: https://www.ntsb.gov/about/employmen...02GA201&akey=1


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