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C17 Totalled in Bagram

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KarmaPolice

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Posts
279
I just got back from a stage input where we got into Bagram and saw the carnage. I don't know how much anyone has heard of this one, but apparently a crew put the right main gear on a closed side of the runway. The nose gear ripped off and tore a hole down the belly like it was opening a can. The right main gear failed and just about ripped off so the right bottom side of the aircraft looks like someone took a knife and ripped it open. The fuselage is bent so the doors won't open, apu pod is torn open and destroyed, and the left main gear were blown and tweaked. Nobody I talked to could imagine it is a recoverable hull. Fortunately nobody was hurt.


My only hope is that management will see this as a wakeup call and make some improvements in how we are doing business, getting crews better rest, better support, and not pushing them to the limits now that we are a few years into this.
 
At this very minute, I'm sitting at the C-5 stage desk in LERT, and I see and talk to the C-5 crews every single day. I've sat in on their intel and tactics briefs. Even though the C-5 flow is fairly light right now, I have been here when it was a nightmare.

There is no doubt in my mind that these crews and airplanes are very tired. They are flying into locations, with threats, that they never imagined just a few years ago. And, it has been going on for well over two years, now.

I don't know what the answer is -- obviously, the mission has to get done.

Hopefully, everyone at every level of the chain of command understands how utterly important it is to do whatever it takes to gives these crews whatever they need to most safely and efficiently accomplish the mission.

For my part, I try to give them a few extra hours rest when I can, and provide them with whatever information and/or support they might need/request when at my station.

Maybe the C-17 at OAIX will open some eyes. I've seen the pictures of the accident. Undoubtedly, the aircraft is totalled. Thank God no one was killed.
 
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I saw some pictures of that happing to a C-130 awhile back. Someone took a HUGE piece out of the runway and the guys didnt see it. Im pretty sure one guy was lost in the deal but it looked just like they way your explaining the C-17.
 
Ultramoron?

ultrarunner said:
Can the crew reimbuse my airplane via payroll deduction? Or will they cut me a lump sum?

Can your parents reimburse the public for raising such a moron? I doubt it. You have no idea what it is like to fly on one of these missions, and yet you feel like you're such a authority that you can immediately blame the crew. You've already grabbed you torch and pitch fork on your way to hang the crew. Your attitude sucks. Immediately blaming the crew? Please. Are you sure you're not an Ops group commander somewhere because you sure sound like one.

Sorry for the rant- but I've watched crews get treated worse than Taliban prisoners for an accidents that were not their fault. They're asked to do a dangerous mission under ridiculous conditions, and yet when something happens it's automatically crew error. Then, when they are finally found innocent, everyone still looks at them suspiciously and the management treats them like they were really at fault. It's crap. Wow, i feel better.
 
Whooo...I was just making fun....

I don't really give a $hit how many airframes they give back to the taxpayers....I can afford it.

And I could give a rats A$$ about who's fault it is....

That whole operation is just a waste of time and a waste of good american soldiers....

The whole freaking region needs to be evac'd by the US, then we go in there and NUKE for MORBID.....

Soldiers loosing their lives chasing sand monkeys, where there is a much simpler way, is pathetic!


DUTY - HONOR - COUNTRY

there, now I feel better
 
Slacker,
I think he was trying to be funny and I took it that way myself.However his true colors came out in his next post.Although he is not far from the truth.
 
Glad the crew was ok. Was the damage worse than the C-130 that went thru the gaping hole in the runway in Iraq?
 
Wow! I had no idea this happened, as I'm currently at my crashpad. I have to admit, the thread title really raised my heart rate as I figured I was about to be informed I had lost some friends when I read the message. Glad no one was hurt.

This is NOT the first time this has happened at Bagram. 2 or 3 years ago, another C-17 dropped a couple wheels in a hole there, but thankfully sustained little damage. As many of you know, we have been operating on the "half open runway" there for years, i.e. one half (left or right) of the runway is open, while the other is closed for repair. By the time repairs are complete, the open half is torn up sufficently to need work, and consequently what was the open side becomes the closed side. The open side has NEVER been well defined - day or night. In our haste to "keep the mission moving", we couldn't afford a few extra hours to adequately paint markings for day ops or install proper lighting for night ops even though we, the crews, have been giving constant feedback regarding the difficulty of identification Now it has cost us. Thankfully it was only equipment damage.
 
Mooseflyer said:
Wow! I had no idea this happened, as I'm currently at my crashpad. I have to admit, the thread title really raised my heart rate as I figured I was about to be informed I had lost some friends when I read the message. Glad no one was hurt.

This is NOT the first time this has happened at Bagram. 2 or 3 years ago, another C-17 dropped a couple wheels in a hole there, but thankfully sustained little damage. As many of you know, we have been operating on the "half open runway" there for years, i.e. one half (left or right) of the runway is open, while the other is closed for repair. By the time repairs are complete, the open half is torn up sufficently to need work, and consequently what was the open side becomes the closed side. The open side has NEVER been well defined - day or night. In our haste to "keep the mission moving", we couldn't afford a few extra hours to adequately paint markings for day ops or install proper lighting for night ops even though we, the crews, have been giving constant feedback regarding the difficulty of identification Now it has cost us. Thankfully it was only equipment damage.

Mooseflyer, where are you based? I have an interview w/ a c-17 reserve unit at travis afb next month
 

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