By Mortz C. Ortigoza
I have fondness about the military cargo plane C-130 Hercules manufactured by Lockheed Martin because I have been riding it countless of times when I was a kid and a teenager.
This every time my Air Force father had R & R (soldier’s jargon on Rest & Recreation or furlough) from Awang Airport in Brgy. Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao to the jungle asphalt and glittering chrome neon lights buildings of Metro Manila through the then Nichols Air Base in Pasay City.
When a Philippine Air Force’s reconditioned 1987 model Hercules aircraft crashed in Patikul, Sulu last Sunday and claimed 52 lives of its 96 passengers, I browsed the local aviation pages at Facebook and learned the nitty gritty of the flying behemoth.
The C-130s since time immemorial became not only the work horse of the Philippines but countless military all over the globe on combat activities and during calamities.
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| Photo Credit: Philippine Daily Inquirer |
It is a 92 passengers capable aircraft.
Geez, have you read the 96 Pinoy soldiers and civilians as based on the Manifest or Passengers List I mentioned earlier?
The C-130 with tail number’s 5125 was overloaded unless the American has an average kilos of each of the passengers as based on the bigger Caucasian Race compared to us smaller Flips, er, Filipinos.
Below are the Salients features of the Herc:
* A Hercules can carry too two M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks – those thick armored monsters that easily demolished the Iraqi's Soviet made tanks; or 7-10 8x8 armored vehicles (Stryker or LAV-25); or 16 High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) those that replaced the M151 series jeeps;
* This aircraft has a payload capacity of 80 tons o 80,000 kilos. It can carry up to 42,000 pounds of cargo;
* The 5125 tail number aircraft was a former United States Air Force (USAF) C-130H manufactured in 1987 by Lockheed;
*It was delivered by pilots of the United States Air Force assigned in the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guards to the Philippine Air Force on January 29, 2021;
* It was part of the two refurbished Lockheed C-130H "Hercules" four-engine turboprop military transport and cargo aircraft in 2019 to beef its existing fleet of four C-130s under the 222nd Airlift Squadron of the 220th Airlift Wing;
*The cost of acquisition for the two C-130s was PHP2.5 billion. It was co-financed by the Philippines for P1.6 billion and the US through its Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program worth PHP900 million;
* It departed last Sunday morning Villamor Air Base in Pasay City to Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro, and ferried there military personnel to Jolo Sulu Airport where it crashed in a village in the mountainous town of Patikul in Sulu province with 96 soldiers on board, including three air force pilots and five crew, civilians while the bulk came from the 4th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army.
*It is one of the three Hercules that thudded in Naga and Davao City, and gutted by fire before it took off in Clark in years in 1993, 2008 and 2019, respectively.
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Monday dusk, I found an actual mobile phone footage took by an amateur – probably a soldier - at the side of the runway in Sulu how the fast descending plane that landed hard 500 feet beyond the threshold of the almost 6,000 feet runway, overshot it, and instantly emit a cloud of black smoke at the forestry area.
Here under the reactions of those people who witnessed the tragedy:
“Wala! Wala! Hala nawala! (Lost! It was lost. Damn it was lost!),” a boy screamed
“Hala nahulog sir! Yawa! Putang Ina! (Damn it fell sir! Devil! Mother f*cker!),” a Cebuano speaking soldier told his officer while cursing.
Other yelled that the transport aircraft was so fast on its approached to the runway.
Here are some of the intelligent comments I culled from the posts of people who knew what caused the mishap:
Hack2 Legends: "As a Pilot myself this guy came in too high, to hot, failed to hit his mark, failed to get the nose of the aircraft on the ground fast, failed to realize he could not stop, failed to apply full throttle to do A GO AROUND. This is the most basic thing you are taught as a pilot and this video is easy to conclude 100% pilot’s error. So sorry for souls lost and the families.
William Duval: @Prodigal Son it’s an assault landing, the Pilot missed his landing mark and supposed to ditch the landing to go around to try again".
Jamdwn1: “Yes, from the video at 0.20 to 0.23 second mark you can see the dust of the touchdown point. The aircraft was well past the threshold of the runaway, at least 500 feet. pass it. For a 3000 feet runaway he has less than 2,500 feet to stop or "go around" ..”
EdwinArcenal: “Heavy big plane + fast landing + short runway = pilot error".
Prodigal Son: @William Duval “I know it was an assault landing. As a former USAF Combat Controller (1963 - 1967) I have set up many assault landing strips and drop zones for C-130 aircraft and have observed hundreds of landings and drops/extractions from the C-130. From the video of the crash it is very difficult to determine (the) point of touchdown in relation to the specified touchdown zone, or the point where full power was applied. As a former USMC helicopter pilot (1970 - 1977), I also know “things happen”.
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QUEUE. Ganito rin ako noong bata pa ako pipila rin ako dito sa likod ng mga soldiers - as based on the Manifest or list of passengers - to enter the back of the C-130 for my Cotabato City to fly to then Nichols Air Base in Pasay City. Pag minalas sa steel na floor kmi naka upo o naka tayo because of our cheek by jowl situation for our three hours ride with stop overs in Zamboangga- to get some coffins in casket and even an armored personnel carrier - and Mactan, Cebu. (Photo of the ill-fated C-130 as it prepared to fly to Sulu. Picture is internet grab) |
Cliff Villanueva: “My personal opinion. The weight of the cargo and pilot's error is the reason for the crash. Weight is really important when flying a plane that is why passenger planes always weight your bags before boarding, I also saw a picture inside from that plane there were really lots of soldiers on board. AFP needs to invest to retrain all the Air Force personnel and must follow strict protocols. We Filipinos have a tendency to over capacitate from vehicles, motorcycles and boats(banka). The military probably overloads their airplanes to avoid big cost of fuel or they just want to save time. Even thou their job is dangerous safety precautions must be prioritized for the protection of our military personnel.
Miguel Bisnar: ”….At least it was landing from West to East and went to the trees. Otherwise, if it landed from East to West it would have been disastrous since there a lot of residential houses going to the pier and the sea. See the map of the airport”.
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Major General Edgard A. Arevalo -the Spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines - had been heard on the television telling all and sundry that the pilots of the ill fated C-130 H were seasoned too.
But circumstantial evidences on the YouTube footage and those pilot-commenters I cited above refuted that statement.
Oh by the way, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on a Tuesday’s television interview blamed the tailwind that push the Hercules to approach the runway extraordinarily faster and pilots’ error.
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MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.
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