Craft in Indiana Tragedy Wins Praise From El Toro Officer

The commanding officer of a Marine Corps squadron of KC-130s, similar to the one that crashed into an Indiana motel, said Thursday that the aircraft is one of the safest and most durable in the military.

Lt. Col. Arlen Rens, 44, who heads the aerial refueling and transport squadron known as the Raiders, said the Lockheed-built aircraft has flown over 1 million hours for the Marine Corps since its maiden flight in 1961. That calculates to about 300 million miles.

During the last 30 years of service, Rens said, the Marines’ KC-130s have been involved in only five major crashes, three of them during the Vietnam War.

One of the five crashes occurred during training exercises at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in 1970. According to news stories, the plane was practicing touch-and-go landings when it hit the ground hard, bounced, and flipped over after shearing off a wing. Four of the five crew members were killed.

The fifth crash involving a Marine KC-130 Hercules occurred in the bay of Hong Kong, killing soldiers that were being flown back to Vietnam from recuperation in Hong Kong. Many aboard the plane died, but some survived.

The Marines have three active-duty squadrons of about 50 Hercules headquartered in North Carolina, Japan and El Toro. Marine reservists have another 20 of them.

On Thursday, a C-130 flown by the Kentucky Air National Guard crashed into a hotel and restaurant near the Dress Regional Airport in Evansville, Ind., spewing blazing fuel and debris over nearby buildings, killing at least 16 people. Authorities were trying to determine the cause of the crash, as one eyewitness told investigators that the plane sputtered, slowed and crashed just after takeoff.

The plane was used again in the Persian Gulf War. Rens’ 13-plane squadron, which left El Toro for Bahrain on Aug. 13, 1990, pumped 20.9 million gallons of fuel into Navy and Marine jets during Desert Storm.

One of the KC-130s in Rens’ squadron was built in 1961 and is running perfectly, he said.

“I have some of the oldest iron in the Navy and Marines,” Rens said, referring to his fleet of KC-130s.

“The airplane is known for its safety and reliability. It is one of the safest in the air today,” said Rens.