A little info, a little history and some corrections....
The US Navy operated 10 LC-130's in Antarctica.
Three of them crashed and were destroyed beyond any means of repair.
Almost all of the Navy Lc-130's were invloved in some sort of major accident once or twice during their Antarctic tour of duty.
US Navy LC-130F 148318 was the first Herc that the US Navy received and was the first LC-130F.
It crashed and burned at Willy Field.
Never heard about Seebees working on the runway, and no mention of it has come from any of the guys of the Old Antarctic Explorers Association or the OAEs-and-FNGs group at yahoogroups.
I'll ask.
318 was destroyed beyond any kind of repair.
It was cut up for scrap and the remains disposed of in the old McMurdo dump.
US Navy LC-130R 155917 was crashed by a USMC pilot while on approach to the South Pole.
He missed the end of the runway and slammed into the deck.
http://www.vaq34.com/vxe6/155917.htm
It's still located at the South Pole and is used as a runway approach marker, however, it is almost completly burried under snow and there are no plans to dig it up.
It was destroyed in the accident and was salvaged in place and then scrapped.
Its current location is NOT where it originaly crashed.
The final US Navy LC130 to crash was LC-130R1 159131.
It crashed while on final approach to the open field runway where LC-130F 148321 had crashed 17 years earlier.
The aircraft was destroyed and two fine US Navy men were killed.
Some of the remains of 159131 were used in the repair of 148321, the rest were flown from the crash site and shipped back to the USA for final disposal. What was not recovered was left behind.
So there are no recoverable C-130's in Antacrtica.
C-121 131644, "Pegasus", did not nor ever did go to the South Pole.
Wheeled aircraft do not operate from snow runways, no matter how well prepared the snow is.
Pegasus was attempting to land in Antarctica as part of the McMurdo season open up of 1970.
Damaged beyond repair landing at Williams Field, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica at 2010 hours local on 8 Oct 1970.
The aircraft, with 80 on board, was flying from Christchurch, New Zealand, on its first flight of the 1970-71 season. After making six low passes over the field, the C-121J attempted to land in zero visibility, winds gusting to 40 mph in a snowstorm and in 90-degree crosswinds.
The starboard wing was torn off completely and the tail unit broken. There were only slight injuries to five on board.
http://www.vaq34.com/vxe6/c121.htm
VXE-6 DISESTABLISHED (correct US Navy term) in 1999.
The NYANG took over the misson as "The Navy" did not want the Antarctic mission anymore.
Interesting C-130 factoid:
The US Navy bought all of the LC-130's that they operated.
In 1987 the US Navy "gave" the LC-130's to The National Science Foundation and became a "paid contractor" to operate and maintain them for the National Science Foundation.
Look at the markings on the side of the US Navy Hercs fueslage, prior to 1987 they were marked "UNITED STATES NAVY".
After 1987 they were marked "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" or "NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION".
The NYANG LC-130's were bought and are owned by the NYANG/USAF and are marked "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE" on the upper forward part of the fueslage and "NEW YORK AIR GUARD" on the fueslage under the wing.
The 4 exceptions are:
LC-130H 93-1096. This LC-130 is owned by the National Science Foundation.
Instead of "NEW YORK AIR GUARD" it has "NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION" on the side.
The three ex-US Navy LC-130Rs' (reworked to USAF LC-130H standards) are (still) owned by the National Science Foundation. They also wear "NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION" on the side and have "unique" aircraft serial numbers (73-3300, 73-3301, 73-3302) instead of their original USAF serial numbers or Navy BUNOs'.
138321 (the crashed US Navy LC-130F) was recovered in 1987.
It spent almost 5 years in some sort of rework in either Antarctica, New Zealand (by Air New Zeland in Christchurch) NADEP Cherry Point and at NAS Point Mugu (by VXE-6, Lockheed tech reps and NADEP reps).
It went back to Antarctica and operated with VXE-6 until March of 99 when it went to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan.
It was reactivated by VX-30 at NAS Point Mugu and used as a target range survaliance/operations/drone/trash hauler until it was once again sent to the boneyard in Feb of 2005.
The Navy or the National Science Foundation did not want to spend the money to send it through its required major rework inspection.
Joe Hawkins
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