C-5 crash at Dover - the skinny

This is the current skinny on the crash, – none of it official – until the board says so.

It was not a bird ingestion but a “reverser unlock” on the #2 engine that started this. They lost a C-5 with all aboard a few years back in Germany for the same cause. This crew however shut down the engine before an actual unstow took place. The airplane was well over 700K gross weight with FOB of over 300K. The airplane had the newest version of the C-5 flight deck with big panel glass. Unfortunately, only one of the three pilots was really comfortable with the new equipment and FMS.

The crew decided because of their weight to fly their approach to the longest runway, which unfortunately was only being served that day by a Tacan approach. They also decided to fly a full flap approach to keep the approach speed down. This is not prohibited–just highly discouraged. The recommended flap setting for a three engine approach is Flaps 40.

During the approach the crew became worried about not having enough power to fly a full flap approach and selected flaps 40–which they were now too slow for.

Here’s the point all you glass cockpit guys should sit up and take notice about.The one guy who was familiar with the new glass and FMS was also the one flying the aircraft. He became distracted inputting the new approach speed in the FMS.

There was also some confusion about just who was flying the A/C while he had his head down updating the speed. Long story short–they got way slow and into the shaker, and actually stuck the tail into the trees and it departed the aircraft first. The nose pitched down hard and the nose and left wing impacted next snapping off the nose.

Several cockpit occupants suffered spinal compression injuries. The guys sitting at the crew table behind the cockpit actually came to a stop with their legs dangling out over the ground.

The miracle of this was the left outboard fuel tank was broken open and none of that fuel managed to find something hot enough to ignite it and the other 300k. Again, a bunch of very lucky people . . or unlucky !

Thanks for the update!

Man, how weird would it be to come to a stop in a chashed C-5…with your legs dangling over an open fuselage?

Joshua

And also consider just how far off the ground those guys are sitting, even without landing gear. Makes me wonder if they could appreciate the view at that moment when everything came to a stop.

Another example of the old adage, “When in an emergency situation, #1 priority is: ‘Fly the airplane!’” Let another crew member make radio calls, input information to the computer, read instruments, etc.

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

Swanny,

Thanks for the analysis; being a “wanna be” pilot, I have a little knowledge of the flight characteristics of a large (huge) a/c like a c-5, so I found your post fascinating. As far as appreciating the view, I’m guessing they more than anything wanted to get back to base for clean skivvies! I know I would!

Brian

The Ramstein accident was basically the same cause, but it was a reverser that was not locked with no accompanying indication, which meant there was no hydraulic pressure on the lock side. (Cause was a single-source ground wire for the reverser-unlock indication and the circuit that ported hydraulics to keep an unlocked reverser powered to close.)

It’s almost routine on a C5 to get a reverser-unlocked light and shut that engine down. With no indication and thus no shutdown, the reverser creates a gas plume around the wing that causes a nearly complete loss of lift on that side. I have a friend who was at the time a C5 IP who asked his simulator instructor at Dover to simulate a full deployment of an outside reverser at rotation. Even knowing what was about to happen, and with full aileron and rudder as well as pulling all four engines to idle, he rolled completely upside down.

Stephan