Emergency responders move equipment across Route 21 in Port Wentworth, Georgia, where a WC-130 cargo plane from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard crashed on May 2. The plane was on its way to Tuscon, Arizona, where it was to be decommissioned. All nine people on board were killed. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Military.com | By Oriana Pawlyk
The Air Force WC-130H aircraft veered to the left on the runway, almost rolling into the grass before the crew was able to get it airborne.
The pilot quickly made the decision to return to the Georgia airfield they had just departed. The pilot directed the shutdown of engine one, operating on the remaining three.
“Coming back,” the pilot repeated five times over the next 30 seconds.
Investigators said that within those few seconds the pilot improperly applied nine more degrees with the left rudder, “which resulted in a subsequent skid below three-engine minimum controllable airspeed, a left-wing stall, and the [mishap aircraft’s] departure from controlled flight.”
No other “meaningful direction” was given to the crew other than an order to “brace” just before impact.
The plane was airborne for two minutes overall before it crashed down into Georgia State Highway 21 roughly 1.5 miles northeast of the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, killing all aboard.
A newly released mishap report determined that the WC-130 crash that claimed the lives of nine members of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard earlier this year was largely due to pilot error. But troubling engine and maintenance issues documented in the aging aircraft raise more questions about the cause of the catastrophic May 2 mishap.
The last link in the accident chain, the catastrophic end to the flight. From what is written here, seems there was an intermittent propeller rpm fluctuation issue on the Number One engine (outboard, left wing). Maintenance was conducted and the problem couldn’t be reproduced.
The fluctuations occurred again right at rotation- the lurch to the left. The crew managed to get the bird aloft and made the right decision to return to the field. I think from the video they feathered Number One then. Maneuvering with an engine out isn’t something most aircraft routinely do; it’s an emergency condition after all, but one pilots are trained to handle. The end factor seems to be pilot error, but the links that put that aircraft in that condition at that place is a matter for the Accident Board for discover- and it did. What was discovered isn’t pretty. What a terrible day.
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Crew members from the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan on July 6 direct an F/A-18F Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 102. The Reagan was sailing the Philippine Sea. (MC2 Kenneth Abbate/Navy)
In this photo taken in 2004, Aurora, a rare white gyrfalcon and Air Force Academy mascot, visits Pinon Valley Elementary School in Colorado Springs, Colo., on the arm of an academy cadet in the falconry program. The 22-year-old bird is expected to make a full recovery from injuries suffered during a prank at West Point. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)