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Air tragedy: Military cargo plane crash kills five in India

C-130J Hercules came down on the outskirts of Gwalior.

Afp March 29, 2014

Onlookers surround cargo plane which crashed in central Madhya Pradesh. PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI:

A C-130J Hercules cargo plane crashed on Friday in central India killing all five of its crew members, an Air Force spokesman said.

The US-made military aircraft came down on the outskirts of Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh while on a routine flight, group captain Gerard Galway told AFP. “We can confirm that all five crew members have died in the crash,” he said.

It was the first crash involving a Hercules aircraft in India, which has been troubled for years by crashes of Russian-made MiG-21 fighter planes.

In a statement, the defence ministry said the aircraft crashed at 4:30 GMT after taking off from Agra. An investigation into the accident was under way, the statement added.

The accident is the latest in a string of deadly mishaps to have hit the country’s armed forces. The chief of the Indian navy resigned last month on the day a fire on board a nuclear submarine killed two officers off the Mumbai coast.

Friday’s accident involved one of the six heavy-lift military transport aircraft which India acquired from Lockheed Martin for around $1.1 billion in a deal signed four years ago.

India had recently deployed one of these aircraft to take part in the search and rescue operation for the missing Malaysian MH370 flight.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2014.

COMMENTS (2)

jagadish | 10 years ago | Reply One more feather in the cap of A.K.Anthony.

Satish Chandra | 10 years ago | Reply The crash of an Indian Air Force Super Hercules today (March 28 ‘14) was caused by the United States with microwave signals from satellites to neutralize what I have written about the sinking of the Indian Navy’s Sindhurakshak submarine having been caused by the United States with microwave signals from satellites to make India switch from Russian to American equipment. On January 20 ‘14 I wrote: “Regarding the “successful” test of the Agni IV missile today: I have been saying for many years (see IndianAirFircePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom ) that the United States can control the operations of digital circuitry in any equipment, even if it is not connected to the outside world via the Internet, etc., by using microwave signals from satellites. Now others have also started saying that (“NSA can spy on offline computers wirelessly, says security expert”, CBS News, Dec 30 2013). The United States can make India’s missiles crash whenever it wants to. India’s only defence is exploding the nuclear warheads I have had India’s nuclear forces emplace in Washington and New York, with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be similarly destroyed if there any retaliation or sign of retaliation”.

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