Hercules fleet grounded-Australian Air Force

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Hercules fleet grounded

September 17, 2008
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THE Defence Force has grounded its entire fleet of Hercules aircraft - the so-called backbone of the Royal Australian Air Force - after an "unusual" fault prompted an emergency landing.

A Defence spokeswoman said yesterday the fault was detected during a training flight near Richmond on Monday night and the RAAF's fleet of 24 planes had been grounded for all non-essential flights until the cause had been detected. None of the seven crew was injured in the landing.

The C130 Hercules is the air force's main transport plane and has been in use for more than 50 years, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has been used in all continents and is regarded as highly safe and reliable.

Defence said yesterday a plane had declared an emergency on Monday at 8.25pm after its crew detected a fault with the nosewheel. At 8.55pm the crew called a mayday but landed safely at the Richmond base 20 minutes later.

A Defence spokeswoman said the nosewheel fault had not been experienced before, but as a precaution for crew safety the planes would do only operationally essential tasks. "Our priority will be to meet critical tasks supporting deployed ADF elements, assessed on a case-by-case basis," she said.

Neil James, from the Australian Defence Association, said the Hercules was the air force's "medium-range tactical workhorse" but grounding them for non-essential flights would have minimal impact.

Jonathan Pearlman

Source
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hercules-fleet-grounded/2008/09/16/1221330837156.html