Wake Turbulence, Flying Discipline Likely Doomed IAF C-130J

The Indian Air Force’s C-130J Super Hercules that crashed March 28 in central India is likely to have impacted the ground during a low-level tactical sortie after being thrown out of control by wake turbulence (Indian Express report here) of the lead C-130J flying in front of it.
I had tweeted after the accident about how initial indicators pointed to the high possibility of a sudden loss of control at 1,000 feet, giving the trailing aircraft’s crew virtually no time to recover.
The IAF’s former flight safety boss (and then AOC-in-C, Western Air Command) Air Marshal P.S. Ahluwalia tells me, “From the information available, there appears to have been a breach of flying discipline on two fronts. One, by the ill-fated aircraft, which may not have updated and compensated its flight path to accommodate wake and other turbulence during closely formated flight. And two, by the lead aircraft itself.”
Either way, the ill-fated crew likely had only seconds to apply corrective measures, grossly insufficient to right the aircraft at such low altitude. Investigations into the circumstances of the shock accident are still underway. Expect updates.

22 thoughts on “Wake Turbulence, Flying Discipline Likely Doomed IAF C-130J”

  1. when you buy a new car SUV Hummer Mercedes – you need to make sure not to drive through the bazaar of bareilly or through narrow lanes and gully. What was the need for trying to pass an elephant through eye of a needle – if these people can't take care of expensive, new and critical equipment – they need to be given retirement.

    1. Mr intelligent firstly airforce doesnt drive suv in bazaars but if they need to then they will but not in suv ,in su30.secondly it was a very important training sortie for the crew i can understand but u wont as u must ve never been through the training.and lastly ur so called expensive equipments given to us by ur netas and bureaucrates are the cheapest ones available in the market.they should have given simulators too .EXPENSIVE lives would have been saved.

  2. I strongly believed that the C130Js were being flown in training like they would be in actual combat. IAF would learn from this crash and be better for it. The C130J brings capabilities that were simply not available earlier, the IAF would be testing out the envelopes of this plane's capability. The IAF has always done that with all its aircraft, and no airforce worth its salt would do any differently.

  3. 1000 crores – money any way dumbos like us are going to pay it again to buy that.

    5 Lives – ???

    Regards,
    AMMAVASAI

  4. Anonymous @ 640

    C130 are heavy lifters transport aircarft not combat aircraft – hell, they are not even bombers.
    Do you do acrobatics with passenger air liner ? or push flying envelope of F1 racing with 40 ft long Limousine ? What a bunch of idiots

  5. Sad.i hope IAF modifies its SOP. In armed forces such things happen when they train stretching own limits to simulate war as clise as possible
    Meanwhile let us it make it personal.RIP air warriors in the Hercules.

  6. If the plane is flying according to the requirements of a C-130J from Lockheed Martin, then it should be covered by warranty.
    Are the pilots following requirements and standard practices of operating the aircraft?
    If they did, then it is covered by manufacturer for free replacement. If not it is IAF fault and need to pay for a new aircraft.
    The reporter and IAF need to find out and let us know.

  7. Low level flying is performed to evade enemy radar. Paratroopers being dropped behind enemy lines using C130J — now you can imagine what they were trying to simulate. If it is hilly terrain, pilots have to be trained even for that.

  8. sudhhendra
    paratroopers are not dropped at 1000 ft. and there were no paratroopers inside – all thin inquiry of air force crashes should be done by other agency – DRDO / DGCA or some kind of safety board which should collect, analyze, disseminate all types of accident data –

  9. The crash of an Indian Air Force Super Hercules on March 28 ’14 was caused by the United States with microwave signals from satellites to neutralize what I have written about the sinking of the Indian Navy’s Sindhurakshak submarine and hundreds of fighter aircraft crashes having been caused by the United States with microwave signals from satellites to make India switch from Russian to American equipment. On January 20 ‘14 I wrote: “Regarding the “successful” test of the Agni IV missile today: I have been saying for many years (see IndianAirFircePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom ) that the United States can control the operations of digital circuitry in any equipment, even if it is not connected to the outside world via the Internet, etc., by using microwave signals from satellites. Now others have also started saying that (“NSA can spy on offline computers wirelessly, says security expert”, CBS News, Dec 30 2013). The United States can make India’s missiles crash whenever it wants to. India’s only defence is exploding the nuclear warheads I have had India’s nuclear forces emplace in Washington and New York, with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be similarly destroyed if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation”.

    The following are the first few paragraphs of my ‘Indian Air Force Pilots’ Murder’ (IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom) :-

    November 18, 2011: When I say the new Chief of Air Staff, N. A. K. Browne, is a CIA-RAW man, I mean he literally sits at CIA-supplied terminals to participate in crimes against India. More than a thousand Indian Air Force aircraft have crashed since 1970, the vast majority of the crashes caused by microwaves from U. S. satellites. In his first week in office as Chief of Air Staff, Browne caused two Indian Air Force fighter planes to crash with microwaves from satellites, to give a boost to his bid to buy worse than worthless foreign aircraft for several tens of billions of dollars of which he will get a hefty cut along with the Defence Minister and the Italian woman who gets the largest cut.

    I said on October 11 '11 ( GaddafiCrimeDOTblogspotDOTcom ) that the 'suicide' of the chief test pilot Baldev Singh was murder, to facilitate the claim of the fraudulent 'delay' in inducting the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, being used to justify the worse than worthless purchase abroad. India builds Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft from raw materials; why do you need to buy fighter aircraft from abroad? [At this, A. K. Antony said on November 23 '11 that the Sukhoi-30 MKI assembly line can only make 16 aircraft per year. Why couldn't you set up another assembly line? As soon as I asked this question, the report in Deccan Herald was changed by RAW to eliminate the reference to assembly line limitation and a reference to a Sukhoi-30MKI crash in April '11 — its first ever — was inserted instead, having him say that the Indian Air Force will continue to use the Sukhoi-30MKI despite the crash along with the new aircraft to be bought from abroad and the Light Combat aircraft. The Sukhoi crash on Dec. 13 '11 has been caused 2 days ahead of the purchase decision as the purchase was made impossible by my opposition to it.]

    N. A. K. Browne, A. K. Antony and the Italian woman should be booked for the murder of Baldev Singh along with the head of RAW. All former heads of RAW should be booked for the murders of hundreds of Indian Air Force pilots.
    Satish Chandra
    (Warning: Do not be distracted by the torrent of abuse RAW routinely posts on what I say.)

  10. I don't know to belive Mr Satishchandra or not, but they have not been able to find MH370 till now – if they had such technology, surely they could have found a boeing aircraft.

  11. Through microwave you can disrupt the electronics as the japan was experimenting during WW2 but the energy requirement is very high and these microwaves energy decreases with distance as per natures law and technology cannot change natures law. Its said that if japan would have invested in nuclear weapon rather than microwave/ radiowave weapon the outcome would have been different. The main problem with microwave based weapon is range. the sattelites are thousand kms away from earth few are hundreds kms, if it is placed in LEO then also high amount of energy will be required which will require high power. Currently i don't know the equation between distance and energy but it maybe inverse to the power 4.

  12. Through microwave you can disrupt the electronics as the japan was experimenting during WW2 but the energy requirement is very high and these microwaves energy decreases with distance as per natures law and technology cannot change natures law. Its said that if japan would have invested in nuclear weapon rather than microwave/ radiowave weapon the outcome would have been different. The main problem with microwave based weapon is range. the sattelites are thousand kms away from earth few are hundreds kms, if it is placed in LEO then also high amount of energy will be required which will require high power. Currently i don't know the equation between distance and energy but it maybe inverse to the power 4.

    1. Anonymous…., remain just that. You don't have the faintest clue about life. … maybe death.! Are you a babu? Perhaps a gregarious clown? Either way you're best ignored. Definitely not Indian. The armed forces won all the wars till date. Barring 1962 where air force wasn't used in offensive mode. Did you even rejoice when we won the kargil conflict? Oops you were sad that day. .. understandable!

  13. They were trying to hoodwink the radars to look as if they were flying a single aircraft , to just push the possibilities of the aircraft higher or if they are thinking like the Chinese just crash the aircraft and try and re engineer it so that the us would not suspect them .

  14. IAF has lost 5 brave men who were trying their best to fly that aircraft to the edge of its envelope. We all have to realize that the crew did the best they could, but in the business of military flying, there are dangers. C130 J is just another aircraft, it doesn't come with GOD mode, you can check up the crash statistics of c 130s.
    SOP's are written in Blood!!! Here is a live example. I'm sure no pilot in his senses will violate them, specially at low levels. I'm sure they also didn't.
    (The COI will give the facts)
    Any professional airforce will Learn from the accident.
    These things happen. IAF (in fact all countries flying the J) will learn from them and ammend their SOPs.

    There is only one way to avoid accidents completely. …
    Stay on the ground!!!!!

  15. Anonymous…., remain just that. You don't have the faintest clue about life. … maybe death.! Are you a babu? Perhaps a gregarious clown? Either way you're best ignored. Definitely not Indian. The armed forces won all the wars till date. Barring 1962 where air force wasn't used in offensive mode. Bye did you even rejoice when we won the kargil conflict? Oops you were sad that day. .. understandable!

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