The US Air Force earlier this week announced the results of the investigation into the crash of E-11A aircraft number 11-9358 in Ghazni province, western Afghanistan on January 27, 2020, killing two crew members.
`The plane took off from Kandahar airport at 11:05 a.m. The mission went normally until the left engine had a problem at 12:50 a.m., one hour and 45 minutes after departure. A turbine blade broke off and flew out.
The wrong engine shutdown caused the US to lose its battlefield communications aircraft
The wreckage of the E-11A plane crashed on January 27, 2020.
However, the pilot misjudged the situation and thought the right engine had encountered a problem, even though this was a normal engine.
Experts believe that the E-11A crew’s misjudgment was due to the loud explosion and strong vibrations in the seconds after the turbine blades flew off, similar to the situation on a Bombardier Global Express aircraft, the E-series development platform.
The AIB President determined that the cause of the accident was pilot error, mainly a mistake in analyzing the engine failure, leading to the wrong engine being turned off and causing the plane to no longer have thrust.
At the time of engine failure, the E-11A was located about 70 km from Bagram military airport, more than 31 km from Kabul international airport, and about 52 km from Shank forward base.
`Unfortunately, they were unable to restart the engine in the air, making the plane unable to glide back to Kandahar. Without many options left, the crew turned to the forward base Sharana, but there was not enough altitude and speed.
Both pilots on the plane were killed in the incident.
The wreckage of the E-11A crashed in Ghazni province on January 27, 2020.
The E-11A BACN was developed by the US military from the Bombardier Global 6000 long-range business aircraft. Only 4 were shipped, all of which were assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Warfare Squadron and only operated
The number of E-11A aircraft in service is so small that the Pentagon does not have aircraft to train on US territory. The first time pilots fly the E-11A is when they are deployed to combat in Kandahar.
BACN is considered an effective solution, helping different US assets `internet` into one and helping connect soldiers on the ground with forward air traffic control (FAC) or coalition air strike control (FAC).
Olivia