Boeing C-17 Globemaster III - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• On 10 September 1998, a U.S. Air Force C-17 (AF Serial No.96-0006) suffered a landing gear failure as it landed in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, a 3,800-foot (1,200 m) runway, to deliver Keiko the whale. After receiving temporary repairs, it was flown to another city in Iceland for further repairs. The total repair bill topped $1 million.

• On 10 December 2003, a U.S. Air Force C-17 (AF Serial No. 98-0057) was hit by a surface-to-air missile after take-off from Baghdad, Iraq. One engine was disabled and the aircraft returned for a safe landing. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service.

• On 6 August 2005, a U.S. Air Force C-17 (AF Serial No. 01-0196) ran off the runway at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while attempting to land, destroying the aircraft's nose and main landing gear. It was the most extensively damaged C-17 at that time. A Boeing recovery team spent two months getting the aircraft ready to fly back to Boeing's Long Beach production facility. The five-day flight back to the United States had to be performed by a test pilot because the temporary repairs caused numerous performance limitations. The repair was completed at Long Beach in October 2006 and the aircraft returned to service.

• On 30 January 2009, a U.S. Air Force C-17 (AF Serial No. 96-0002 – "Spirit of the Air Force") made a gear-up landing at Bagram Air Base. The C-17 was ferried from Bagram AB, making several stops along the way, to Boeing's plant in Long Beach, California, for extensive repairs to return it to service. The USAF Aircraft Accident Investigation Board concluded the incident was caused by the crew's failure to lower the landing gear and having not followed the pre-landing checklist.

• On 28 July 2010, a U.S. Air Force C-17 (AF Serial No. 00-0173 – "Spirit of the Aleutians") crashed on Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska during a training flight, killing all four aboard. It was practicing for the 2010 Arctic Thunder Air Show. The C-17 crashed near a railroad, damaged tracks and disrupted rail operations. A military investigative report determined that a stall caused by pilot error led to the crash. This is the first and only fatal C-17 accident and its only hull-loss incident.