Marine KC-130 Involved in Monday Crash Has Good Safety Record via USNI News.

via USNI News.

The KC-130T crash that killed 15 Marines and a sailor is one of only four major in-flight incidents involving the aircraft in almost the last 40 years, making the plane among the safest in use today.

The C-130 Hercules, which serves as both an aerial refueling tanker and a troop and cargo transport plane for the Marine Corps, has among the best safety records in the service. It has only experienced four in-flight Class A mishaps – incidents involving loss of life or permanent disability, total loss of an aircraft or more than $2 million in damages – according to Naval Safety Center data dating back to 1980, the center told USNI News today.

One of those Class A mishaps occurred in 1990 and two in 2002, with the fourth being this week’s crash.

“The KC-130 has one of the lowest mishap rates of all Marine Corps aircraft,” Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns told USNI News today.

I don't get this reporting.

We all know that the KC-130 is one of the safest aircraft in Marine Corps service.

What we don't know is why it seems that we've seen a rash of incidents involving Marine planes!  Is it just perception or is it reality?  Has the crash rate gone up or are we just paying a bit better attention?

Another uncomfortable question is this.  Is this part of the growing pains that come with a "Aviation Centric" Marine Corps?  Are we placing a strain on the Wing by pushing them to fly more, do more and shoulder a bigger portion of the load than they have historically?

The loss of life is unacceptable.

Whatever the cause we need to fix it ASAP.

Ya know what I find disturbing?  We haven't heard anything about an inspection or safety stand down for this fleet of airplanes.  Structural damage was the first reporting on this incident, so why aren't we at least doing inspections on other airplanes in this class?  I don't understand the thinking here.  If memory serves, this was an automatic in the past but now we're seeing feet dragged.  WTF is going on?