Just days after a National Guard C-130 slammed into a Georgia highway in May, the House began pushing for a new commission on military aviation safety, and the Pentagon was peppered with questions.
A review by the Air Force now shows the military cargo plane’s crew ignored warning signs that led to the crash, killing all nine Puerto Rico Air National Guard troops aboard. The crew’s unit also suffered from a culture of complacency up and down the chain of command.
Lack of maintenance did not appear to play a role, despite worries about the overall condition of U.S. military aircraft, the service’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Board found.
“There is no evidence to suggest any other unscheduled maintenance was a factor in the mishap,” according to the report.
Congress passed a provision over the summer creating a National Commission on Military Aviation Safety to look into the causes of the C-130 crash and a rash of other military aviation incidents over the previous year, including the death of 16 service members when a Marine Corps KC-130 went down in a Mississippi field in July 2017.
A widely cited investigation by Military Times found military aviation mishaps increased 40 percent since 2013.
Last week, President Trump named four members to the commission, and the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee named two members.
“It is essential for our aviators and their families — as well as for our military’s ability to recruit, retain, and perform its mission — that Congress have an authoritative, objective, apolitical look at the causes of this problem so that we can figure out what is going wrong and what actions need to be taken,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the Armed Services ranking member and sponsor of the commission legislation, said in May.
The review of the crash in Georgia, less than two miles from the Savannah airport, found that the direct cause was a pilot of the C-130 executed the wrong maneuver after problems with one of the engines. But the air crew also failed to prepare for emergencies, reject a flawed takeoff attempt, and follow safety checklists.
The Puerto Rico Air National Guard maintainers also “showed a distinct lack of motivation to ensure engine one was operationally ready for flight” after seeing it was not functioning at full power.
Air Force investigators interviewed personnel at the crew’s 156th Airlift Wing, which is based out of the U.S. territory’s Muniz Air National Guard Base, and found low morale was an issue.
The Guard members there said they felt like an “afterthought” for the Air Force because they were given the oldest C-130 aircraft in the service, according to the report.
The aircraft that crashed in Savannah was bound for the service’s “boneyard” in Arizona to be decommissioned.
The conditions at the aging and hurricane-damaged Muniz Air National Guard Base also sapped attitudes in the wing and led to complacency, airmen said. Damage from Hurricane Maria last year had not been repaired.
“The damage caused a significant loss of workspace and subsequent lack of maintenance and repair facilities,” the report found.
