Lockheed C-130 Hercules - Accidents

Accidents

The C-130 Hercules has had a low accident rate in general. The Royal Air Force recorded an accident rate of about one aircraft loss per 250,000 flying hours over the last forty years, placing it behind Vickers VC10s and Lockheed TriStars with no flying losses. USAF C-130A/B/E-models had an overall attrition rate of 5 percent as of 1989 as compared to 1 to 2 percent for commercial airliners in the U.S., according to the NTSB, 10 percent for B-52 bombers, and 20 percent for fighters (F-4, F-111), trainers (T-37, T-38), and helicopters (H-3).

A total of 70 aircraft were lost by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps during combat operations in the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia. By the nature of the Hercules' worldwide service, the pattern of losses provides an interesting barometer of the global hot spots over the past 50 years.

On 17 August 1988, then President of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq was killed along with the then U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, when a Pakistan Air Force C-130 carrying them crashed soon after takeoff from Bahawalpur, Pakistan.

On 1 July 2012, a U.S. Air Force C-130 crashed while fighting wildfires in South Dakota. There were both fatalities and survivors.