GWALIOR: An Indian Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo plane carrying five crew members crashed on Friday during a routine missionin Gwalior city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, an Air Force spokesman said.
A rescue operation was under way after the plane, a heavy lifter of a type made by U.S. Lockheed Martin Corp, came down to the West of the city of Gwalior.
The fate of the crew was not known till the filing of this report.
India had recently acquired six C-130J aircrafts from the United States and has plans to acquire six more in the near future.
The Super Hercules planes are operated by 15 countries including the air forces of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Italy.
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On DawnNews
Comments (24) Closed
Zak
Mar 28, 2014 12:22pm
These C-130 are complicated planes to fly which needs high degree of Air Force pilot skills. Indian Air Force should stick with simpler Russian ones.
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ajaath
Mar 28, 2014 12:53pm
@Zak:
Thank you for your valued comment. Please ask dawn to change picture. given picture is of C-17 globemaster not C130 Herculese
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Muhammad Yasir Younus
Mar 28, 2014 01:05pm
The plane in the picture above isnt a C-130J Super Hercules rather its a C-17 Globemaster.
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Ajay
Mar 28, 2014 01:13pm
@Zak:
Very soon India's main fighter jet is going to be 5th gen, Sukhoi PAK t-50, which is arguably much better than american F-22 Raptor. Lets meet up in a dog fight in the skies some day, we will see who got the skills. Looking forward to that.
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Kaz
Mar 28, 2014 01:26pm
@Zak:
Sure Sir.
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Unaiza Fatima
Mar 28, 2014 01:34pm
Good
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ahmedj
Mar 28, 2014 02:04pm
It requires a highly skilled performance to crash a C-130 Hercules, which has the lowest accident rate in the world in military transport aircraft's category.
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Manish
Mar 28, 2014 03:48pm
@ajaath:
It is C130J Hercules as it has propellers attached. Nonetheless, Zak should note that planes are always a complicated objects to fly and this was not the first accident of C130. Before this Pak's own Zia died in one C130 crash. Besides, many C130's crashed during Vietnam war. They were all accidents and we really feel sorry for the people who have died in crashes. And it is one of the C130J which we lost but I am sure we are going to compensate for this loss by adding many more tactical airplanes to our fleet.
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ahmedj
Mar 28, 2014 03:50pm
@ajaath:
Don't blame Dawn. This is definitely C-130 series aircraft. One can easily make out from the turbo-prop propeller engines. C-17 Globemaster is a jet engine airplane and much bigger in size.
You still have to know your equipment well before learning to fly these machines.
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Taimoor Khan
Mar 28, 2014 04:41pm
@ajaath:
It is C130 not globe master. Picture is correct one.
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Dr M A Hussain
Mar 28, 2014 04:56pm
@Muhammad Yasir Younus:
No it is not sir...lol
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Tamilselvan
Mar 28, 2014 05:39pm
India has lost more planes to crashes during peace time rather than during wars. There are several reasons for it including lack of training and poor maintenance of planes especially the Russian ones which requires lots of maintenance. This is one of the reason why Russian planes are hardly used by civilians airlines anywhere even in Russia! In recent times India few submarines in a matter of months forcing the Chief of Navy to resign. Too much bureaucracy, kick backs etc are ruining the force which the armed forces declines to accept
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jen
Mar 28, 2014 06:09pm
Indian military has always deceived its citizenry with false sense of security. India's ability to produce indigenous weapons is more or less zero. A complete overhaul of defence policies and procurements is the need of the hour. Otherwise, India will surrender meekly even to minnows like pakistan or srilankan army or to whatever.
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M. Emad
Mar 28, 2014 07:44pm
In December 1971, IAF gained complete superiority of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) sky within 3 days of war and saved millions of Bengali lives from killing-torture.
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mitas
Mar 28, 2014 10:13pm
I am happy to see very sensible and informative comments by Pakistani and Indian Boths, in contrast to dirts seen on the blogs of other newspapers. Please keep it up.
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IKE
Mar 28, 2014 10:36pm
It is sad and tragic accident. Lets not fight and boast over death of some. It can happen anywhere and to anyone. Believe me Europe fought for hundreds of years and then the figured it out that war is no solution.
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Nitin
Mar 29, 2014 11:58am
US is making fool of India Pakistan. they are making good business with the tension between India Pakistan and will not allow the matter to be settle down.
US provide military equipment to both the countries and making good amount of dollars as this is their bread and butter.
This aircraft was provided by US just few months back..and surely they will not take the responsibility but they will blame pilots fault. Villagers saw the smoke from the plane before it came down so definitely this was issue with the aircraft not pilots.
Ask the citizens of both countries what they want...they want peaceful life.
But for more than 60 years governments from both side has brainwashed the minds of citizens.
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Zak
Mar 29, 2014 06:49pm
@Ajay :
If you say so, but it has crashed in every test flight and if past history is anything to go by, I would advise, keep what you have otherwise you will many more if you try take on the best- PAF. Btw, read AK Anthony report to Indian parliament, India lost half of its 856 fighters by crashes and lost 171 pilots. What more can I say.
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Zak
Mar 29, 2014 06:51pm
@Manish:
Silly comment, Zia's plane was sabotaged with odorless gas placed in the cockpit, which incapacitated the pilots. It was not technical failure or pilot error.
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Zak
Mar 29, 2014 06:53pm
@jen:
Minnows Pakistan have hammered India all the time.
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Jay
Mar 30, 2014 12:05am
@Ajay :
We already met in the sky in 1965 war when our pilots destroyed 5 Indian fighters in less then a minute and recorded ace in air to air combat.
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Asif
Mar 30, 2014 12:55pm
@Ajay :
i guess you guys for get M.M Alam....
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Asif
Mar 30, 2014 12:57pm
@Manish:
zia plane was Planed accident by U.S.A.
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Pradip
Mar 30, 2014 01:49pm
@Jay:
Well jay, Pakistan lost the complete Air Combat in the 1965 and 1971, as India with Russian planes took the war to Pakistani Air Zone.
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