A C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft was damaged Tuesday when its nose landing gear collapsed while on the tarmac at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, the 19th Airlift Wing said in an email.
1st Lt. Jessica Cicchetto, a spokeswoman for the 19th, said Wednesday that there were no injures reported in the accident. However, the Super Hercules — assigned to the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock — remains grounded while the damage is being assessed, she said.
“Operational safety is a top priority for Little Rock Air Force Base, and an investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the incident,” Cicchetto said. There were no further details available, she said.
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Photographs of the damaged Super Hercules were first posted on the unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco on Wednesday morning.
The Air Force has experienced landing gear problems with a handful of planes in recent years.
A C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft in January landed at Travis Air Force Base in California with its nose landing gear up. Initial reports said the crew experienced hydraulics issues while trying to lower its landing gear, and were forced to conduct an emergency landing. Another C-5 had a similar emergency landing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas in March 2018.
In August 2018, an F-35A fighter jet’s nose landing gear collapsed after an in-flight emergency forced it to return to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and land.
And in October 2018, a landing gear malfunction is believed to have been the culprit that forced an F-22 Raptor fighter jet to conduct an emergency landing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, and resulted in it leaning on its left side.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
