Propellers make their way through five gates, or work processes, at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex. Steven Vann, 572nd Commodities Maintenance Squadron aircraft propeller mechanic, tightens barrel bolts on a C-130 propeller prior to testing. One prop blade on Yanky 72 was supposed to have been removed from service by Warner Robins workers during its last overhaul in 2015, the report states. Twelve of the 16 blades on the four-propeller plane suffered from corrosion that was present the last time they each passed through Warner Robins, “proving that over the course of a number of years… failed to detect, remove and repair corrosion infected blades they purported to have overhauled,” the investigation states. It was not the only deteriorated blade flying with Yanky 72 that day, according to the investigation. “The intergranular radial crack in blade four, which ultimately was the root cause of this catastrophic mishap, developed and matured from corrosion pitting and (intergranular cracking) that was not removed during the last blade overhaul,” the investigation states. The corroded propeller blade that set off the mishap last went through overhaul in 2011, according to the investigation.Īlthough processes existed for the civilian maintainers at Warner Robins to identify and fix such corrosion, investigators found no evidence that such measures were taken in 2011. The work is performed by civilian employees, who overhaul propellers after 5,000 hours. RELATED Robins Air Force base plans to add 1,200 jobs The complex has averaged 400 C-130 props per year over the past decade, with Navy props comprising five percent of that workload, according to the report. Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex overhauled propellers for all variants of Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps C-130 Hercules, which are manufactured by Lockheed Martin using propeller blades by United Technologies Corp. “The Navy took the precaution to treat every propeller that was identified in the engineering review as a potential problem and chose to replace them.” “I cannot speak to a hypothetical number of how many props may have had the same defects identified in the one involved in the mishap,” he said in an email. Kuntz said the Navy had not assessed whether those removed propellers suffered the same disrepair that brought down Yanky 72. New propellers are being installed on the fleet and old ones will start being overhauled again once the Warner Robins reforms are in place, he said. “Out of an abundance of caution, every potentially affected propeller was slated to be overhauled and replaced,” Kuntz said. Naval Air Systems Command spokesman Greg Kuntz said all propellers were removed from the Navy’s C-130 fleet after the crash “to address a subset of propeller blades that potentially had corrosive conditions.” “Neither the aircrew nor anybody aboard the KC-130T could have prevented or altered the ultimate outcome after such a failure.” “Due to the rapid onset of the catastrophic sequence of events and the instantaneous structural failures, it is unlikely that the aircrew had time…to change the final outcome,” the investigator wrote. They suffered shock, disorientation and “rapid onset of below freezing conditions and near impossible crew communication.” The 4th Marine Air Wing probe suggests they did not suffer for long, nor could they do anything as the 25-year-old plane came apart. Julian Kevianne, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Lohrey, Marine Sgt. Marine Corps)Įveryone on board - the pilots, the aircrew and the passengers - were killed. The memorial was held to honor the lives of nine VMGR-452 Marines who perished in a KC-130T accident that killed 15 Marines and one Sailor, July 10, 2017. Marines assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452, at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, Aug. An audience waits for the invocation of a memorial ceremony to honor nine U.S.
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