2015 Jalalabad USAF C-130J crash

On October 2, 2015, a Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules of the United States Air Force operated by the 317th Airlift Group and the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, crashed only 28 seconds after takeoff from Jalalabad Airport, Jalalabad, Afghanistan, killing all 11 occupants on board. A further three were killed on the ground where the C-130 crashed.

Accident

After completing the ERO checklist, the flight crew taxied to the active runway and backtracked down the runway to runway 31. The air traffic controller reported winds at three knots from a heading of 220°. The takeoff roll was initiated at 00:15:24 Afghan time. At 00:15:50, after the captain said "rotate", the aircraft lifted off at a speed of 107.5 knots. Four seconds later, the co-pilot, who was the pilot-flying (PF), stated that the aircraft was "going off on its own". The co-pilot figured out that there was something wrong with the aircraft and incorrectly pointed out that there was a trim tab malfunction. The flight reached a top airspeed of 117 knots.

As a result of misunderstanding the problem, the pilots executed an incorrect procedure. They applied a full nose-down trim to attempt to lower the nose to prevent a stall. Nonetheless, the aircraft continued to pitch up. At 00:16:01, the first stall warning occurred with a 20° nose-up position, with wings level at an airspeed of 115 knots. One second later, the flight entered a stall condition and remained stalled for the remainder of the flight, except a brief moment before impacting the ground. At 00:16:02, while the aircraft continued to pitch up to 25°, the captain, after taking control from the co-pilot, began rolling the aircraft to the right and about a second later, the stick pusher was activated, which had no additional effect because of the blocking NVG, and a second stall warning was issued while the nose continued to pitch up to 35°.

At 00:16:06, the co-pilot selected the emergency trim, however, this had no additional effect since the main trim system functioned properly. At 00:16:07, a third stall warning was issued and the aircraft reached a peak of an upward pitch of 42°. The captain applied left aileron but, because of the stalled flight condition, the right bank continued to increase to a peak of 75° right bank. At 00:16:13, as the aircraft's nose started to plummet reaching a nose-down pitch of 28°, it began to roll to the left. The nose was again rising but because of the descent rate of 8,000 feet per minute, the aircraft simply had no room to clear terrain. At an airspeed of 112 knots, the aircraft hit the ground instantly killing all 11 people onboard and 3 Afghan Special Reaction Force members on the ground.

After the accident, the Taliban claimed that they shot down the aircraft from the sky. However, this was immediately ruled-out.