India’s newly-acquired American C-130J Super Hercules plane that crashed last week near Gwalior has been under intense scrutiny in the United States and Canada after a Senate investigation concluded that counterfeit parts in the aircraft’s display systems could cause it to “lose data or even go blank altogether” in midflight, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
The aircraft, numbered KC 3803, was the number two of the formation and was carrying out a tactical flying training mission. The loss of the aircraft was ascertained by the lead aircraft and rescue choppers were sent from Gwalior,” an air force officer told The Indian Express.
What has come as a surprise is that the aircraft was believed to be in good technical condition and did not give out any distress signal before going down. “The crash was sudden and there was no indication from the crew that anything was wrong,” the officer said.
While a court of inquiry that has been ordered will rely on flight data information from its black box as well as the account of the lead aircraft of the formation, the investigation is expected to focus on a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) situation or a sudden loss of control due to a technical or human error, among others.
The C-130J is a modern aircraft which was inducted into the IAF in 2010. In the last three years of its operations we have exploited capabilities of this aircraft during Uttarakhand floods and landing at DBO, which is the highest landing ground in the world.