Military aircraft that killed hundreds: Statistics on C-130 crashes

Yesterday, a C130 military transport aircraft of the Turkish Air Force that took off from Azerbaijan's Ganja city crashed in Georgian territory. According to preliminary estimates, all crew members have perished.

Report informs that this incident in Georgia is not the first crash recorded involving C130.

For example: On July 1, 2012, a C-130H2 aircraft assigned to the 156th Air Airlift Squadron of the United States Air Force crashed in southwestern South Dakota while carrying out a mission to extinguish forest fires. The crew consisted of six people; two survived.

On February 11, 2014, a C-130H-30 aircraft of the Algerian Air Force crashed in a mountainous area near the city of Ain Kercha in Oum El Bouaghi province, about 30 kilometers south of Constantine airport. There were four crew members and 72 passengers on the aircraft; one person survived.

The next incident occurred on March 28, 2018, in India. All 5 people on board the aircraft died. Six months later, the crash of the same type of aircraft in Egypt killed 6 people.

On June 30, 2015, a C-130B aircraft assigned to the 32nd squadron of the Indonesian Air Force crashed into the Medan residential area shortly after taking off from Soewondo air base. All 110 passengers and 12 crew members on board perished.

Just four months later, a C-130J-30 aircraft assigned to the 744th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron of the US Air Force crashed shortly after taking off from Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan. All 11 people on board and three people at the crash site were killed.

Three people died in a crash in Portugal on July 11, 2016, 13 in Indonesia on December 18, 2016, 16 in the US on July 10, 2017, and 3 in Libya on April 29, 2018.

On July 4, 2021, a C-130H (serial number 5125) aircraft of the Philippine Air Force crashed in the southwest of the country. Of the 85 people on board, 40 were rescued.

In terms of casualties, the largest single C-130 crash was near Lagos, Nigeria on September 26, 1992. At least 158 people died as a result.

C-130 aircraft has crashed in many other countries as well. Although there were no deaths in these incidents, they caused serious damage to the countries' budgets. Overall, according to recent calculations, 327 militarily modified C-130 aircraft have crashed, resulting in 3,466 deaths.

The C-130 Hercules series produced by Lockheed Martin has been sold to various countries around the world for more than half a century. This model, which made its first flight in 1954, has been updated over time with the C-130J Super Hercules variant to meet modern requirements. However, the number of accidents indicates they are not perfect.

The aircraft currently serves in the armed forces of more than 70 countries. The C-130 is primarily designed for military cargo and personnel transportation, airborne operations, medical evacuation, firefighting, humanitarian aid delivery, as well as special operations.