A refuelling plane from the US Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan has crashed after taking off, the emergency situations ministry told AFP.
"According to my information, the plane broke up into three pieces. Information on the dead or wounded is being clarified. All the rescue services have gone to the scene," the ministry's press secretary Abdisharip Bekilov said on Friday.
The plane crashed near the mountain village of Chaldybar, around 200 kilometres from the capital Bishkek and close to the border with Kazakhstan, the spokesman said.
The press service of the US base, which serves troops in Afghanistan, told the Interfax news agency that it could not immediately confirm the information on the crash.
"We cannot confirm this information, it is being checked," a spokesman told the agency.
The plane took off at 2.30pm local time from Manas, the press secretary of the ministry of transport and communications, Kylychbek Dosumbetov, told AFP, citing the country's Civil Aviation Agency.
The emergency situations ministry said that preliminary information was that a KC-135 Stratotanker plane lost contact with the base as soon as it took off.
Witnesses told the Kyrgyz AKIPress news agency that they heard a boom and then an explosion and that the plane was continuing to burn.
The ministry said witnesses saw the plane explode in the air, and a local government official said debris was scattered over a 4 to 5 km area in a nearby mountainous area.
"The chassis, the fuselage have all been extinguished and now we are searching for the crew members and the plane's black box," ministry official Bolot Sharshenaliyev said.
"There are three crew members. According to preliminary information it flew from Bishkek and was on its way to Afghanistan, with approximately 70 tonnes of fuel on board."
Cellphone video footage obtained by Reuters showed an armed guard around the crash site where burning debris had scorched the ground.
JLAmber wrote:reaching the site is proving problematic.
Rescue workers on horseback were scouring the area before night fell in the rural area on the border with Kazakhstan
A Kyrgyz civil aviation official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said storm clouds over the region could have caused the explosion, Interfax reported.
One local news agency, 24.kg, quoted witnesses as saying the plane had hit a high-voltage power transmission line before it crashed, and quoted a local official as saying the pilots had ejected from the plane. Neither report has been confirmed.
Zak wrote:
Also, is it even possible to eject from a KC-135?
Zak wrote:Have there been any earlier mid-air explosion incidents before?
The front section of the aircraft has not yet been found, Kyrgyz Emergencies Minister Kubatbek Boronov told The Associated Press. He said searchers also have not found the flight recorders from the plane, which was badly burned in the crash.
The search for the crew will resume Saturday morning and the crash site will remain under guard, Boronov said.
One resident of the agricultural and sheep-grazing area said the plane exploded in flight.
"I was working with my father in the field, and I heard an explosion. When I looked up at the sky I saw the fire. When it was falling, the plane split into three pieces," Sherikbek Turusbekov told an AP reporter at the site.
captoveur wrote:Zak wrote:
Also, is it even possible to eject from a KC-135?
They used to carry parachutes but I think those are long gone.. The means to egress by parachute is still present.
A lot of the R models are very old airframes.. Maybe it finally gave up.
Zak wrote:Also, is it even possible to eject from a KC-135?
No Chutes, Honest: The Air Force has decided it can save money and time by removing the parachutes from KC-135 aircraft, known for their safe flying record, according to officials with Air Force Reserve Command's 931st Air Refueling Group at McConnell AFB, Kan. The decision will save the cost of buying and maintaining parachutes and training dollars and time. In 20 years of flying the KC-135, said Col. Clay Childs, 931st ARG deputy commander, said he has never considered using a parachute. He also flies civilian airliners, which don't have parachutes. According to boom operator MSgt. John Austin, "If the plane is under control, you are going to stay with it; if it's out of control, you're not going to be able to get to the parachute anyway." (931st ARG report by TSgt. Jason Schaap)
miamiair wrote:Zak wrote:Also, is it even possible to eject from a KC-135?
Not sure about the KC-135, but I seem to think that I had seen the fire pole.
Can't find a picture of it, will have to check the manual on Monday. The C-130 has a pole from the flight deck to just above the top edge of the crew door cut-out. There is a handle behind the pilot that jettisons the door, and in theory you grab the pole and slide down through the crew door opening with a trajectory that keeps the crew memb0er away from the #2 prop arc.
Capt. Mark T. "Tyler" Voss, 27, Capt. Victoria "Tori" A. Pinckney, 27, both from Colorado Springs, were two of three airmen killed May 3 when a KC-135 refueling plane went down outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Also killed was Tech. Sgt. Herman "Tre" Mackey III, 27, of Bakersfield, Calif.
"All three of these patriots were members of our proud 93d Air Refueling Squadron," the Air Force said on Facebook. "These brave Airmen leave behind an incredible legacy and show what we all know, that freedom is never free."
Read more: Colorado Springs airmen killed in Kyrgyzstan crash - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ ... z2ST8RubbS
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A sweatshirt and coveralls stained with grease and sweat sit on a work table at Felts Field exactly where Capt. Tyler Voss left them.
He bought his Van’s RV-8 kit aircraft two years ago. Now it waits for a new plastic canopy in a hangar for the Experimental Aircraft Association. The wings are still speckled with bugs from prior flights.
.....
“I couldn’t believe it – those tankers rarely go down,” Hohner said. “The bench is just like he left (it) – he was only going to be gone two months.
