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Home Front: WoT
C-5 Crashes At Dover AFB
2006-04-03
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

#10  Agree with STEVE - here on Guam one routinely sees more tankers flying around Andersen USAFB and WESTPAC than transports, fighters or bombers.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-04-03 22:09  

#9  I think this is the third C5 to crash, at least that I know of. Very lucky crew, other two were not so lucky. Hope they figure out the cause soon.
Posted by: 49 pan   2006-04-03 21:40  

#8  Something to thank our "intelligent designer" about tonight for sure.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-04-03 21:36  

#7  The pictures resembled those of a B-52H that crashed at Wright Patt in 1974. The BUFF had lost hydraulics and had neither rudder nor elevator control. The pilots controlled it by the engines, up and down by varying power settings and left and right by differential thrust. After flying around for 8 hours to burn off fuel to get to landing weight, the plane was attempting to land when it suddenly pitched nose down into the runway. The nose broke off and rolled off the runway. The engine cables sheared and put all 8 engines to max power. The remainder of the plane went straight up, did a wingover and impacted 500 yards down the runway in a fireball. It was almost 30 minutes before anyone noticed the nose off to the side of the runway. All 7 crew (6 + 1 IP) were alive, but hanging upside down in their seats. Only the pilot in the IP seat was hurt(a compression fracture). Pilot in Command, Major Charlie Brown.
Posted by: RWV   2006-04-03 20:30  

#6  There's got to be more than a one-engine flameout. Go through the emergency checklest. Set up for a landing.

We had an E3-B AWACS crash at Elmendorf AFB on Sept 22, 1995. Killed all the crew. The #1 engine ingested some birds, blew up, pieces took out #2 engine. She was full of fuel and rolled over on her left wing and became a smoking hole.
It was right near the highway. That black smoke was an awful sight.

These people in the C-5A were very very lucky.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2006-04-03 16:41  

#5  DOVER, Del. — A huge military cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff at Dover Air Force Base on Monday, breaking apart in a belly flop that drenched some of the 17 people aboard with fuel but caused no fire or life-threatening injuries. “ItÂ’s a miracle. ItÂ’s absolutely a miracle,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ruse, commander of DoverÂ’s 436th Air Wing Civil Engineering squadron.

Military officials said the C-5 Galaxy, the military’s largest plane at more than six stories high and 247 feet long, developed problems soon after taking off for Spain about 6:30 a.m. It crashed just short of the runway while attempting to return to the base and broke in two behind the cockpit. The tail assembly landed several hundred yards away, and an engine was thrown forward by the impact. “It looks like it kind of slid along the ground almost like a water landing of sorts,” Ruse said.

Fourteen of the injured, taken to a Dover hospital, were covered with jet fuel and had to be decontaminated in the parking lot, but officials said none of their injuries was considered life threatening. Three others were taken to Christiana Care in Newark, said hospital spokeswoman Sharon Justice. The hospital would not release further information, but the military said none of the crash survivorsÂ’ lives was in danger.

The C-5 was being flown by a reserve crew from the 512th Airlift Wing, said Capt. John Sheets of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. All flights from the base were suspended as emergency crews, some in hazardous materials suits, combed through the wreckage in a light rain under overcast skies. Some sprayed foam on the left wing, which had lost its engine, while others removed the remaining fuel from the plane.
Posted by: Steve   2006-04-03 16:29  

#4  Loss of engine on takeoff is purty bad but evidently they got altitude and setup for landing, on 3 which shouldn't have been so hard, bet it was more than a single engine failure.
Posted by: 6   2006-04-03 15:59  

#3  it would be full of fuel on takeoff, landing it's near empty.

C-5s often take off with minimum fuel load, meeting a tanker soon after. Easier to lift that big bird full of cargo off with lighter fuel load.
Posted by: Steve   2006-04-03 12:28  

#2  Also heard that all are alive! I was always amazed when I watched one of them fly.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2006-04-03 11:23  

#1  No fire, amazingly.
Probably landing then, it would be full of fuel on takeoff, landing it's near empty.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-04-03 10:58  

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