Eight rescued from C-2A Greyhound crash
The Navy reports that a C-2A Greyhound aircraft crashed into the Philippine Sea while it was engaged in training operations from the USS Ronald Reagan. Three sailors are still missing, but eight have been rescued, according to Stars & Stripes;
The Greyhound was carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to the carrier at the time of the crash. It is assigned to Carrier Air Wing 5, the aviation component of the Ronald Reagan strike group.
The carrier was conducting a training exercise with the JMSDF at the time of the accident, the Navy said. The crash’s cause is unknown.
Category: Navy
My prayers for the missing and their families. We are again reminded that keeping us safe and free is a dangerous and sometimes deadly business. There is nothing “routine” about flying to and from an Aircraft Carrier.
This is yet another reminder that we all owe those who serve, purposeful service.
It -must- be to the purpose of National Defense, and -must- be supported materially in sufficient plenty to be effective.
We can (and will) argue where exactly are the lines on those concepts, but we must not shirk that responsibility.
We -owe- that debt to those who serve, and especially those who die in that service.
The fact that eight survivors are reported to have been recovered would seem to indicate that this was a planned/controlled ditching, rather than an uncontrolled crash into the water.
Successfully ditching any type/model/series of aircraft into the water is an extremely difficult maneuver to execute under the best of circumstances and conditions.
Hopefully they’ll find and rescue the remaining three missing Sailors ASAP.
I had the same thought that this was a ditching. To pull it off speaks to the skill of the pilots. BZ to them, and prayers for those missing.
I can only hope they find the missing three. Real-time training is always dangerous.
Thoughts and prayers for the missing and their families.
Freedom is not free.
There but for the grace of God…
Hope the missing are found alive and well. And soon.
Something is going on in the South Pacific as this is too many crashes of ships, planes and choppers. My money is on the Chinese setting up something on those islands. All these issues in that area and keep happening only started after those islands went up. They have to be using some sort of kill switch tech or something to take control.
Or there’s more USN activity in the area. But go ahead and get some more tin foil for that sweet hat of yours.
I can’t find the article now, but say in general that much of the 7th Fleet was “uncertified” for operations. In other words, years of inept leadership under the Barry Bananas regime has forced the Navy to cut-corners. I’m sure the other services are suffering as well, but this incident and the 2 collisions at sea are the results of years of neglect. It will take a few years (lets hope not longer) to un-fuck the military after 8 years of social engineering instead war-fighting training.
Excessive demand from the COCOM (PACOM) for naval assets forced 7TH FLEET into an unsustainable OPTEMPO. Compound that with CONUS deployers who show up in C7F AOR totally broke, with a laundry list of CASREPS, doesn’t help either. The navy had a choice the last 10 or so years to either tell the NCA they couldn’t make missions due to training and maintenance, or do the missions and training / certifications / maintenance be damned. Leadership chose the latter, because USN isn’t USAF, and we get U/W to get the mission done.
Compound the OPTEMPO with aging ships, reduced maintenance budgets and today’s sailors knowing little to nothing about their gear and you now have the chickens from the last 15 years coming home to roost. The last vestige of qualified personnel remains in aviation and nuclear propulsion / submariners. Hopefully this accident isn’t an indication that aviation is now 8TFU too.
I have been in WESTPAC for 20 years and I have watched this slow motion train wreck occur before my very eyes with the surface fleet. IMHO, SPRUANCES and FFG-7’s were in better shape when we decommissioned them than some of the DDG FLT 1’s are now. That’s saying something right there.
Westpac 20 years ago was bad enough, let alone being permanent 7th Flt.
Don’t even want to think about now.
UPDATE: possible engine failure.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/22/aircraft-carrying-11-crashes-in-pacific-ocean-on-way-to-uss-ronald-reagan.html
‘Three U.S. Navy sailors remained missing Wednesday after a U.S Navy plane crashed in the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff from Japan, as early indications pointed to an engine failure as the cause of the mishap, multiple defense officials told Fox News.
[…].’
My sphincter clenches at any Class A mishap (a word never so far from scope).
God help the missing and mercy on the responsible.
Amen!