Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database
Lack of Communication over Iraq - or simply: "Broken Hercules"
The following series of photographs, taken in Iraq on 30 December 2004, was supplied to us by a source in the USA some times ago. Given that they were meanwhile revealed elsewhere on the internet, the ACIG.org feels free to show them as well.
Here a closer description of the accident:
A week before this accident occurred, an Army National Guard C-23 Sherpa transport flew into a US-operated airfield in Iraq during the day and saw there was construction equipment on the runway. Yet there was no NOTAM (notice to airmen) issued warning aircrews about the contruction.
A trench was being dug in the runway, and it was not marked. But it is a long runway and they just landed beyond the construction. They filed a safety hazard report that was immediately forwarded to higher headquarters and to the Air Force wing based there.
Well, it seems the construction continued and still was not marked or NOTAM-ed. An Air Force MC-130H (serials "85-0012") landed on the runway the night of the 29th December: the crew did not see the construction site and the aircraft wound up going through what was now a large pit on the runway.
The MC-130 was totaled. There were several injuries to the crew and the few passengers that were aboard, but - luckily - nobody was killed.
Conclusion: Quite the set of failures somewhere in the system regarding this improper construction and the lack of notifications about it.
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