Military investigators have determined a Marine transporter plane crashed in Mississippi due to shoddy maintenance work undertaken six years earlier - and could have been prevented.
The doomed Lockheed KC-130 was flying at 20,000 feet on July 10, 2017, when suddenly, a blade from the left propeller came loose and carved through the body of the plane.
The force of impact from the 130 pound propeller colliding with the aircraft was so severe the cockpit was severed from the plane and hurtled towards the ground.
Moments later, the fuselage followed and the wreckage of the vessel was strewn over five miles of a soybean field in Greenwood.
The jet was transporting personnel and equipment from the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, to Naval Air Field El Centro, California.
A witness said some bodies were found more than a mile from the crash site.
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The doomed flight climbed to 20,000ft on July 10, 2017, before plummeting to the ground (pictured above) after a propeller severed the plane in two
Victims: Top row from left: Staff Sgt. William J. Kundrat, Hospital Corpsman Second Class Ryan Lohrey, Sgt. Joseph J. Murray, Sgt. Dietrich A. Schmieman, Sgt. Talon R. Leach, Sgt. Chad E. Jenson, Staff Sgt. Robert H. Cox, Gunnery Sgt. Mark A. Hopkins, Major Caine M. Goyette, Sgt. Owen J. Lennon, Staff Sgt. Joshua M. Snowden, Sgt. Julian M. Kevianne, Cpt Sean E. Elliott, Gunnery Sgt. Brendan C. Johnson, Cpl. Collin J. Schaaff, Cpl. Daniel Baldassare
All 15 Marines and one Navy corpsman aboard the KC-130 aircraft died in the seemingly freak crash.
President Donald Trump tweeted after the crash that the 'Marine Plane crash in Mississippi is heartbreaking' as he sent his and Melania's 'deepest condolences to all'.
It was originally speculated at the time that the plane - which had ammunition and personal weapons on board - could have exploded in mid-air as the result of on-board fire or ammunition discharge.
But a new military report reveals that bad maintenance practices at a Georgia air force base in 2011 are actually to blame.
The crashed KC-130 (shown above) was revealed to have corrosion on multiple propellers
The report, released on Wednesday, slams 'consistent production errors' at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, citing evidence from the crashed plane that shows employees negligently missed signs of corrosion on the propeller blade during an overhaul of the aircraft.
Military officials have known the causes of the crash since the end of last year, and some family members had previously indicated they knew what had happened.
In July, Anna Johnson, the window of crew members Gunnery Sgt. Brendan Johnson told The Associated Press: 'Planes don't just fall out of the sky.
'It was a grave mistake, it was an accident that was most likely preventable.
'I don't want their deaths to be in vain. I want something good to come of it.'
Fifteen Marines and one Naval soldier were killed in the impact, which saw the wreckage spread across five miles of a soybean field in Jackson, Mississippi. (Pictured: Smoke rising above the trees from the 2017 crash)
The report indicates the Air Force has now agreed to adopt the Navy's more demanding overhaul procedures for all propellers.
Brigadier General John Kubinec, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, told The Telegraph of Macon that the base expects to restart propeller overhauls early next year.
'When we first heard that work done here in 2011 may have contributed to the mishap, leadership and the (propeller) shop were devastated,' Kubinec said.
'The first thing we did was take action to ensure that processes were in place that this wouldn't happen again.
'That's what our commitment has been since we first heard about it.'
The report says a corrosion pit eventually developed into a crack, breaking off from the propeller closest to the fuselage on the left-hand side of the plane.
A number of other propeller blades on the four-engine aircraft were also found to have corrosion.
Investigators also found a protective coating had been painted over corrosion on some blades from the plane, proving that Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex workers 'failed to detect, remove and repair corrosion infected blades they purported to have overhauled.'
The report said inspectors visiting the base were dismayed to find workers relying on memory for how they should conduct propeller maintenance, even though they had laptops with the correct procedures at their work stations.
The Air Force doesn't know which technicians inspected the blade in 2011, though, because its previous policy was to dispose of maintenance paperwork after two years.
The Lockheed KC-130 was transporting personnel and equipment from the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, to Naval Air Field El Centro, California when it crashed just off of Highway 82 in Greenwood, Mississippi
Although the Navy had the power to audit work done by the Air Force in Georgia, the report says there's no evidence any audit ever occurred since the Navy handed off the work to the Air Force in 2009.
'It cannot be concluded with any reasonable degree of certainty that the radial crack would or would not have been detected,' investigators wrote.
The report says all aboard suffered 'shock, disorientation, inadvertent physical responses, rapid onset of below freezing conditions and near impossible crew communication.'
All the men died from blunt force trauma and contusions, investigators found.
Despite speculation at the time, the report found 'no evidence of in-flight fire damage or ammunition discharge.'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/06/military-probe-finds-2017-crash-that-killed-16-in-mississippi-was-down-to-shoddy-maintenance-work/
Main photo article Military investigators have determined a Marine transporter plane crashed in Mississippi due to shoddy maintenance work undertaken six years earlier – and could have been prevented.
The doomed Lockheed KC-130 was flying at 20,000 feet on July 10, 2017, when suddenly, a blade from the left...
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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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