Can damaged Hercules be repaired?
Date: 3 February 2010
By Dean Wingrin
It has been speculated that damage to the C-130BZ Hercules transport which suffered a nose-gear collapse on the evening of 25 January may be more serious than initially thought.
The Hercules (serial 404) was performing a ‘touch-and-go' at the Waterkloof airbase when the nose undercarriage collapsed, causing the aircraft to come to a sudden stop. The nose of the aircraft was only raised by midday the following Tuesday.
Unconfirmed reports state that one of the tyres separated from the nose-gear axel and caused considerable damage to the underside of the aircraft as it rebounded under the fuselage.
It is not known exactly how serious the damage to the aircraft is, nor the damage caused to the recently resurfaced runway.
Comment form the SAAF is still awaited, despite repeated requests.
