Article states 11 onboard including some passengers, believed to have come down in the Philippine Sea.

Rescue mission underway, best wishes to those onboard.

https://news.sky.com/story/us-navy-airc ... c-11138416

Latest says 8 recovered. I imagine that had to be a fairly controlled ditching.

I hate to say this, but... the C-2 is a turboprop, not a jet.

And it'd be 8 "rescued," as "recovered" tends to mean "dead, but we found their bodies." The 8 are apparently in good condition and being treated about the Reagan.

Good news that 8 have been recovered in “good condition”. Let’s hope the other 3 are also, and it was a controlled ditching hopefully. Odd there are so few details available.

FCAFLYBOY wrote:

Good news that 8 have been recovered in “good condition”. Let’s hope the other 3 are also, and it was a controlled ditching hopefully. Odd there are so few details available.

Having been a passenger in a C-2 (on and off the Reagan) I'm amazed that anyone survived. It's not an easy plane to exit. You are wearing a lot of stuff (helmet, goggles, life jacket) and jammed into a seat that make Spirit seem uncrowded, essentially no windows. Is there an emergency exit other than the cargo ramp? I don't remember one.

aklrno wrote:

FCAFLYBOY wrote:

Good news that 8 have been recovered in “good condition”. Let’s hope the other 3 are also, and it was a controlled ditching hopefully. Odd there are so few details available.

Having been a passenger in a C-2 (on and off the Reagan) I'm amazed that anyone survived. It's not an easy plane to exit. You are wearing a lot of stuff (helmet, goggles, life jacket) and jammed into a seat that make Spirit seem uncrowded, essentially no windows. Is there an emergency exit other than the cargo ramp? I don't remember one.

I dimly recall being briefed on emergency exits during my hop in 2015, FWIW. But yeah, when I heard about the crash I also assumed the worst – you'll probably survive the impact (hell, it's designed to smash onto a carrier deck and keep its occupants/cargo intact) but getting out is a whole 'nother business.

aklrno wrote:

FCAFLYBOY wrote:

Good news that 8 have been recovered in “good condition”. Let’s hope the other 3 are also, and it was a controlled ditching hopefully. Odd there are so few details available.

Having been a passenger in a C-2 (on and off the Reagan) I'm amazed that anyone survived. It's not an easy plane to exit. You are wearing a lot of stuff (helmet, goggles, life jacket) and jammed into a seat that make Spirit seem uncrowded, essentially no windows. Is there an emergency exit other than the cargo ramp? I don't remember one.

Hi, I'd be very interested to hear more about flying on the C-2..as a passenger... can you kindly expand?
What is it like? take off roll...noise...cabin space/size..etc etc.
I have always been fascinated by the C-2. It looks impressive, sturdy and powerful..
many thanks
D

You seat facing the rear of the aircraft.
There’s usually cargo on pallets in the mid cabin behind you.
You’re wearing a cranial and an inflatable life preserver
You cant hear anything or talk to anyone other than by yelling at the passenger next to you.
When you get catapulted, the turboprop engines are run up and then you feel/hear a loud bang as the holdback breaks, and then you get pushed/Thrown back against the shoulder belts holding you in your seat. The joke that is told to people who haven’t been catapulted/noobs is to “close your eyes otherwise your eyeballs pop out of your head during the cat shot.”
Just before landing the sign in the overhead just above the rear cargo ramp illuminates. “Prepare for arrested landing.” You’re just jostled around in you seat and then you just feel it crash onto the flight deck and then you get pressed against your seat back. After coming to a stop, the smell of jet blast and exhaust fills the cabin as the exit ramp opens and you see the next airplane line up on final and you see shirts running around in the flight deck as the aircraft taxis off the landing zone in to a parking spot next to the island. During the taxi you hear the hydraulics fold the wings. the aircraft shuts down and you wait until someone meets you (collectively not you personally) and you follow them off the aircraft and into the island. Where you doff your cranial and life jacket and they get collected and get recycled for the outgoing pax or go back out to the c-2.

If there was a code on board, the code get to debark the aircraft first, Noncodes have to wait until he’s off first. He walks through a formation of multicolor jerseyed side boys and gets greeted personally by someone important from the ship either XO or CO or staff officer depending on how high the code is. The other peons/noncodes get quietly unloaded afterwards and escorted to the island.

According to main stream media, they're looking at this as a very rare case of dual engine failure. The crew is being praised for managing to land it in the sea, and the media is comparing it to the Sully landing in the Hudson.

Condolences to the families of the 3 crew members not found. As far as I know the search and rescue mission is over.

The aircraft has been found & looks like they intend to recover it.

http://www.c7f.navy.mil/Media/News/Disp ... ppine-sea/

Bringing an aircraft the size of a C-2 up, intact, from 18500 feet... Impressive if they can pull it off.

How intact was the aircraft following the ditching?

I'm not surprised the Navy is going for salvage. Given the limited C-2 fleet size and the importance of the C-2 to US carrier operations, the Navy needs to know what happened.

zanl188 wrote:

Bringing an aircraft the size of a C-2 up, intact, from 18500 feet... Impressive if they can pull it off.

How intact was the aircraft following the ditching?

I'm not surprised the Navy is going for salvage. Given the limited C-2 fleet size and the importance of the C-2 to US carrier operations, the Navy needs to know what happened.

Must be something important in it.

I do not like conspiracy therories but maybe something highly confidential was on board and the ditching was caused by some Sabotage...

Be it as it may be - my thoughts are with the families.

TheSonntag wrote:

I do not like conspiracy therories but maybe something highly confidential was on board and the ditching was caused by some Sabotage...

Be it as it may be - my thoughts are with the families.

But that's exactly what you are putting out there, an unsupported conspiracy theory.

At the depth the a/c is I assume pressure will have some effect on the frame, there are frames in boneyards in the USA which may have timed out or deemed not feasible for repair, will the pressure now put this frame on par?
It will be expensive to lift the a/c if done by a private contractor, my conspiracy theory would be that something valuable was onboard.

par13del wrote:

At the depth the a/c is I assume pressure will have some effect on the frame, there are frames in boneyards in the USA which may have timed out or deemed not feasible for repair, will the pressure now put this frame on par?
It will be expensive to lift the a/c if done by a private contractor, my conspiracy theory would be that something valuable was onboard.

??

Given that there were survivors I would assume that pressure doors were open and not closed. Why would someone close a pressure door following a ditching?

I guess for some 3 people still unaccounted for and cause of the crash apparently not yet clear are not enough of a reason to try and recover the aircraft

Below is an article from Subsea World News.

Paul Allen's vessel R/V Petrel has carried out the side scan sonar and ROV work. Very deep water, but not outwith the capabilities of R/V Petrel.

https://subseaworldnews.com/2018/01/26/rv-petrel-in-c-2a-greyhound-survey/?utm_content=buffere6dde&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

His vessel has been doing some really fascinating work the last few years. Lots of work on finding sunken WWII vessels.

R/V Petrel has mapped the aircraft debris field using an ROV and side scan sonar. It's in two main sections.

http://www.c7f.navy.mil/Media/News/Disp ... greyhound/