Leaderboard

Story time!

An AFSOC C-146A Wolfhound struck a concrete barrier while taking off in the Philippines causing substantial damage to the aircraft and some injuries to the crew. When this appeared on my feed my first question was what the hell is a C-146A? It's a Dornier Do 328 twin turboprop aircraft that's part of the eclectic coterie of Key West Agreement sized aircraft that the Air Force operates with a diaspora of aircrew in far-flung corners of the world. When I worked at ATA years ago I used to jumpseat on these all the time, I cannot remember which airline operated them but they had a fairly modern glass cockpit layout at the time and had a unique navigation system. Instead of INS, IRS, or Ring Laser Gyro they used a system that would triangulate multiple radio Navaids for a position solution. I don't remember what it was called but the crews seemed to really like the aircraft. The Do 328 was short lived in US Airline service and quickly replaced by Regional Jets so I'm sure the AF picked up some of these for a reasonable cost.

Yeah... But.... She's pretty hot.

The irony is the incident also comes almost 30 years to the day since Cuban defense forces shot down two small civilian planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a US-based group that searched for rafts carrying migrants from Cuba to the US. Four people aboard were killed in the 1996 incident, triggering outrage in the US. Coincidence? Maybe not...

Received a response after leadership reached out on my behalf. A delay of a "couple more weeks" is likely as those short-term training gaps are being filled by others.