WAR: British C-130 Hercules Crashes in Iraq, At Least 10 Dead

Originally posted by TK868
According to "7's 4:30 news" (for those of us in australia)

There was a former australian left-tenant (no idea how to spell that) on board.

I believe the C0-Pilot was an Aussie sad day for Britain and Australia. We are a small Country and every death effects us badly.

Im not even going to dignify Indigo_Childs post with a reply.

[edit on 31-1-2005 by Janus]

ITV has just confirmed that 9 RAF personel and 1 soldier have been killed. They are now sure it was hit by a missle. Although no-one is sure what the plane was doing in the area it is suspected it was on a special forces operation. A terrorist group has claimed responsability for the crash.

Sky News are suggesting that among the dead there may be a squad of SAS. There are normally 5 crew on a Herc so there may have been a patrol of SAS on board. This as they said on Sky is unconfirmed but if true will be a huge loss to the SAS.
I repeat this is unconfirmed, i believe Sky News were speculating but the Airfield the Herc flew from is known to be a staging area for US and UK Spec Forces according to them.

[edit on 31-1-2005 by Janus]

Al Jazeera aired some video of the crash, I guess filmed by the terrorists responsible. Fox News just had it on TV.

Update

Purported Tape of Shot Down Plane Shown

Insurgents claimed to have shot down a British military plane north of Baghdad over the weekend, and Al-Jazeera television aired a videotape from guerrillas Monday showing flaming wreckage of a plane. Britain said all 10 personnel on the flight were missing and presumed dead.


The authenticity of the video could not be confirmed. It showed a finger pressing a button on a white box with wires, and then images two missiles or rockets flying up into the air. The video did not show any impact with a plane. Instead, it cut to footage of people in street clothes walking through a plane's wreckage burning on the ground.


It was not immediately possible to determine if the wreckage was that of the British C-130 Hercules that crashed Sunday about 25 miles north of Baghdad.
Source

It was the second group to claim responsibility for Sunday's plane crash.

"The Green Brigade, one of the brigades of the 20s Revolution, the armed wing of the Islamic National Resistance in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the downing of the British military transport plane in a video, a copy of which was received by Al-Jazeera," the Qatar-based news channel said.


"The group said in a statement that more than 40 people, including officers, were killed in the incident," it said.

story.news.yahoo.com.../afp/20050131/wl_mideast_afp/iraqbritaincrashclaim_050131171933

Kindly note they are claiming 40 people were killed, that alone makes this video suspect.

I have seen the tape on CNN, FOX and MSMBC in the past hour and it is highly suspect to me. Frankly I think this little know group of radicals is just trying to make a name for itself.



[edit on 1/31/2005 by shots]

The Ansar al-Islam group said in a statement posted Sunday on an Islamic Web site that its fighters tracked the aircraft, "which was flying at a low altittude, and fired an anti-tank missile at it."

Most UK and US aircraft are fitted with counter measures (heat flares) that automatically launch when the onboard computer detects a missile lock, and the hostile missile will then track the flares that trail behind the plane. The most common heat seeking missile that is probably used by the resistance would be the SA-7 (Strela-2) which is man-portable and can be prepared from march to fire in under 10 seconds and was most likely stored in great number pre-invasion.

However that report states the plane might have been hit at low altitude by an 'anti-tank' missile, and seeing as they do not rely on heat detection this could be very possible, although I will say that you would have to be an extraordinary shot. The only thing the crew on board can do when faced with such an attack is play the odds that it will not hit.

Unfortunately…

posted by Shots
Lets not come up with figures that are not confirmed ok. There is a big differance between 128 and 300, that is why the media always gets things twisted, they never check the facts

Easy sunshine, I am just recalling from memory a notice I saw whilst in the back of a Herc. It quite clearly stated that it could carry nearly 300 men, albeit with no equipment. Thats what I saw, so don't jump down my throat buddy.

Some sensitivity would be nice too, as although I have no conf my Uncle was even in Iraq at the time, chances are people he knew where on there, and therefore possibly people I know too.

However that report states the plane might have been hit at low altitude by an 'anti-tank' missile, and seeing as they do not rely on heat detection this could be very possible, although I will say that you would have to be an extraordinary shot. The only thing the crew on board can do when faced with such an attack is play the odds that it will not hit.

Could have been laser guided. Would have to be a good shot, but with enough of a sighting, you could track a Herc on landing approach and take it out. We'll have to wait and see what the MOD say.

[edit on 31/1/05 by stumason]

Anyone got a link to the 'supposed' video of insurgents shooting this thing down? CNN is hosting it, but I've not bought their video subscription.

Iraq militants "downed RAF plane will missile"

LONDON, Jan 31 (KUNA) -- An Iraqi militant group Monday claimed responsibility for bringing down a British Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules which crashed killing up to 15 UK troops, press reports reaching here said.

Officials at the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) would not comment today on the claim posted on a website by the "Ansar al-Islam" group.

A search for survivors was today under way after the aeroplane plunged into the desert in central Iraq yesterday.

The area has been secured by US and UK forces and the wreckage was being examined to try to discover the cause of the crash.

An MoD spokeswoman said There will be an investigation".

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to the troops killed in the Hercules crash, describing them as very brave men''.

Our hearts go out to the families and comrades of those who were killed and those injured", he told BBC domestic radio.

Straw said the MoD would reveal if it was an accident, or if the plane was shot down, as soon as it could.

The relatively slow, low-flying Hercules, renowned for its reliability, crashed in clear conditions yesterday.

If the death toll is confirmed as nine or more, the tragedy will be the biggest single loss of life since since March 21, 2003, when eight British troops died as the US helicopter they were in crashed.

A military source said the figure was around ten'', and highly unlikely'' to be more than 15.

No further details have been provided as next of kin are still being informed.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the deaths without specifying numbers and paid tribute to those who had been killed.

The aircraft was en route from Baghdad to the city of Balad when it came down 25 miles north of the capital.

It is still not known whether those on board were all crew or passengers and whether the aircraft was carrying equipment or troops.

Blair told a press conference last night that the British people were yet again'' reminded of the sacrifices that the Armed Forces made on behalf of their country and the extraordinary'' job they did. (pick up previous)

kuna.site

ok,
c-130 hercules,
a plane, mainly used to transfer large amounts of troops, crashed.
the u.k. even after nearly two days now, does not give exact numbers of the personal killed in this crashed.
the plane, is the "workinghorse" for carrying troops from point a to b. it is made to carry between 64 - to 128 troops + a 3-9 man crew.
medias say up to 15 u.k. killed, but normally it carries 64 - 128 man.

but ok, lets say there where only 15 u.k. soldiers on board. - so what was the load of the plane then?
why does it fly from baghad to balad?
what is so extremly important for the military, that they do not transport it from baghdad to balad by truck or train?

and
when flying from u.s. held baghdad to u.s. held balad airbase, isn t it likely that there were also some u.s. troops, commanders, equipment, weapons or something like that on board ?


something smells fishy here...

rumours flying this side of the pond..(info is expensive, beers not as cheap as it used to be)

story no.1 from army guy, 1 pilot raf, 1 co pilot raf(australia) 8 sas/sbs guys


story no.2 from a raf guy( he was cheap, always knew raf was cheap skates, he coughed up just over a phone call)

story he had be told was.. the c-130 was full of brit sas and 2 A teams green berets?( he said yank special forces so im guessing) and some fancy VIP(s) c-130 was flying low... most likey with ramp down so the vip could get a nice view( civvys for ya) then no more c-130

after he told me it rang true. remember GWB said on the election day about us and brit loses. but no america soldiers died on sunday? right

Originally posted by chaosrain
Anyone got a link to the 'supposed' video of insurgents shooting this thing down? CNN is hosting it, but I've not bought their video subscription.

The only copy I have is from Ogrish.
I've seen links to other copies on the Jihad sites but the links are dead.

ogrish-dot-com-british_plane_shot_down.wmv

here is a link to the BBC with the insurgent video:

BBC Video

Norwegian media claim there was a bomb on board that plane...
If that´s true, how did they get the bomb on the plane?

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Norwegian media claim there was a bomb on board that plane...
If that´s true, how did they get the bomb on the plane?

Do you have a link to the story Hellmutt?

Riddle of plane disaster

By TOM NEWTON DUNN
in Iraq and JOHN KAY

MILITARY experts are probing whether a bomb brought down the RAF plane which crashed in Iraq. Investigators fear an explosive device may have been planted aboard the C-130 Hercules at Baghdad.

Ten British Servicemen died when the plane blew up at 15,000ft, far too high to have been hit by an anti-tank missile fired from the ground, as claimed by terrorist group 1920 Revolution Brigade in a video shown on Arab TV.

But experts have not ruled out a more powerful surface-to-air missile, like a US-made Stinger.

The transporter fell out of the sky on Sunday afternoon, killing nine RAF men and an Army NCO attached to the SAS.

The only one of the dead named was navigator Flight-Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, 35, originally from Melbourne, who held dual Australian-British nationality.

The plane was on a routine 20-minute “admin” flight from Baghdad to the US airbase at Balad, 40 miles from the capital. It was not flying a special forces team to take part in a operation.

Last night investigators were trying to piece together wreckage to find what caused the disaster.

They will study transcripts of communications between the cockpit and control towers.

The plane is not thought to have sent out any mayday call before it vanished from radar.

A senior MoD insider said: “It is clear the C-130 exploded in mid-air and shattered into thousands of pieces.

“This is almost exactly what happened when the Pan-Am jet was blown up over Lockerbie by an on-board bomb.

“The most obvious explanation for this is that the disaster was caused by a mid-air explosion.

“A bomb could have been planted on the plane when it refuelled at Baghdad and stopped to collect passengers and cargo.

“It was election day throughout Iraq and to the insurgents downing a big plane like an RAF Hercules would be a huge coup.”

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, head of the RAF, said: “We all want to know what caused it. We will find out what happened.

“We mourn those brave and dedicated Servicemen who were on the aircraft.”

The crash was the worst single loss of British lives since military action began in Iraq in 2003.

i have found this news in the sun.

crashed?
shot down?
destroyed by on-board bomb?

ok, what is next?



[edit on 1-2-2005 by Souljah]

Originally posted by shots

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Norwegian media claim there was a bomb on board that plane...
If that´s true, how did they get the bomb on the plane?

Do you have a link to the story Hellmutt?

Here, but it is in norwegian...
They also claim that the video of the missile-shooting was fake or "not related to this incident".

pub.tv2.no...

SICK terrorists last night claimed these video pictures show the moment they blasted an RAF Hercules out of the sky.

But experts are convinced it is a cruel fake aimed at glorying in the deaths of ten British servicemen in Iraq.

The Sun has been told the blast happened at an altitude of around 15,000ft. The missile on the tape appears to be heading for a target only about 1,000ft up.

Crucially, there is no image of any impact on the tape. And other scenes of burning debris could have been taken anywhere.

One senior military source said of the video: “It’s wholly unreliable and not fooling anyone.



Source

Some intesting reading when you read the whole article.

[edit on 2/1/2005 by shots]

Originally posted by Indigo_Child
It's a war zone, and they are armed forces, this is what they enlist in the army for. Planes will get shot down and troops will get shot. Same for the other side, well except for the planes of course. What's the big deal?

God, what a fascist statement. How are the death camps running?

i had a dream that had what i though was a ac-130 violently crashing to the ground the other day, and well turns out after looking at c-130 pictures that it was indeed a c-130. so peculiar these dreams just never end, a month or so ago i had one where a child looking out his window noticed explosions advancing in proximity and then he exploded, the following morning i turn on the computer and sure enough US accidently bombs civilians. weird.

Update
This may be of interest to many here?
Video of Hercules air attack is 'bogus'

Wow.
Bad weekend for the local Iraqi terrorist, eh?
Elections went off pretty much unhindered.
An alleged US soldier captured ends up to be a "GI Joe" type doll hoax.
And now this>?

That dern media will swallow anything, since RatherGate, huh? You would have figured that they would have learned from their collective lesson(s)....not!




seekerof

[edit on 2-2-2005 by Seekerof]