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C-5 Crashes At Dover AFB
 DOVER, Del. - A C-5 cargo plane with 17 people aboard crashed near the Dover Air Force Base Monday morning, according to a state public safety official. There is no word on fatalities but Department of Public Safety assistant director Allen Metheny said some injuries have been reported. Some patients are being taken to a local hospital and others were being taken to a trauma center. It's not clear if the plane was landing or taking off when it crashed around 6:45 a.m. The plane broke into three pieces, with the cockpit separated from the fuselage and a wing shattered. It wasn't immediately clear whether the plane was taking off or landing when it crashed. The C-5 is one of the Air Force's largest cargo planes and is designed to carry very heavy cargo loads on transcontinental deployments. More as it comes in, photo at Drudge Report. She lost her tail and nose came off just in front of wing. No fire, amazingly. UPDATE: According to initial reports, it had just taken off and had some indications of a problem, said Col. Kate Haddock, spokeswoman at the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff. It turned back to land and fell short of the runway, she said. Maj. Ange Keskey of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois confirmed 17 people were aboard and said the crash is being investigated. Additional: Pentagon sources told CNN the aircraft "declared an in-flight emergency for a No. 2 engine flameout." The C-5 jet, assigned to the 436th Air Wing at Dover AFB, was being operated by an Air National Guard unit, officials told CNN. The C-5 Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the U.S. military inventory, came down short of the runway at Dover about 6:30 a.m., the officials said. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane had taken off from Dover and crashed while attempting to return. Allen Metheny, assistant director in the Delaware Department of Public Safety, said some people were taken to hospitals with injuries, according to The Associated Press. Television images showed the plane had broken into at least three pieces, with the cockpit separated at a right angle from the rest of the fuselage. The broken-off tail assembly was several hundred yards away, AP reported. Posted by: Steve 2006-04-03 |
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