USAF F-35A Has Landing Gear Collapse, C-130 Overshoots Runway in Separate Incidents.

File photo of a 388th FW F-35 landing at Hill AFB (USAF). In the box, A screen shot of video reported to be of the C-130 incident on Monday in Iraq.

F-35A Landing Gear Collapse is Second Time for USAF, No Injuries in C-130 Accident.

In two separate incidents, a USAF F-35A Lightning II was damaged when its nose wheel collapsed at Hill AFB in Utah on Monday and a USAF C-130 was damaged when it overran the runway at Camp Taji, Airbase in Iraq. The pilot of the F-35A was being evaluated following his escape from the aircraft and four personnel were reported to have sustained “non-life threatening injuries” in the C-130 crash.

The F-35A incident happened on Monday, June 8, 2020 at Hill AFB, Utah. The aircraft belonged to the 388th Fighter Wing. Reports indicated the pilot of the aircraft was undergoing a medical evaluation. Official Air Force sources were not specific about how the pilot exited the aircraft following the nose landing gear collapse. The 388th Fighter Wing Twitter page reported that, “The pilot egressed the aircraft and is undergoing a routine medical evaluation.” One other unconfirmed report on Twitter said the pilot had ejected.

This is the second time a USAF F-35A has had a landing gear related mishap. On August 22, 2018, an F-35A from the 58th Fighter Squadron at Eglin AFB in Florida experienced a nose wheel collapse after landing immediately following an in-flight emergency. The pilot was not injured.

The unrelated incident with the USAF C-130H transport aircraft occurred at approximately 10:10 PM local Iraqi time on June 8, Monday. The aircraft involved was from the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing based at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. The crash occurred at Camp Taji Air Base, approximately 17 miles north of the Baghdad. According to a report from the Associated Press, there were 7 crew members and 26 passengers on the aircraft.

Video shared on Twitter from the C-130H incident in Iraq showed that the aircraft may have crashed through a barrier at the end of a runway.
As with all military aviation incidents, both incidents will undergo an official investigation to determine the causes.



About Tom Demerly
Tom Demerly is a feature writer, journalist, photographer and editorialist who has written articles that are published around the world on TheAviationist.com, TACAIRNET.com, Outside magazine, Business Insider, We Are The Mighty, The Dearborn Press & Guide, National Interest, Russia’s government media outlet Sputnik, and many other publications. Demerly studied journalism at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan. Tom Demerly served in an intelligence gathering unit as a member of the U.S. Army and Michigan National Guard. His military experience includes being Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia (Cycle C-6-1) and as a Scout Observer in a reconnaissance unit, Company “F”, 425th INF (RANGER/AIRBORNE), Long Range Surveillance Unit (LRSU). Demerly is an experienced parachutist, holds advanced SCUBA certifications, has climbed the highest mountains on three continents and visited all seven continents and has flown several types of light aircraft.