NTSB: 747 freighter crash due to improperly loaded military vehicles

The National Transportation Safety Board weighed in on the National Airlines Boeing 747 freighter crash at Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan in 2013.

   The National Transportation Safety Board said a 2013 incident in which a National Airlines Boeing 747 freighter crashed on takeoff from Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, was caused by five large military vehicles it was transporting being “inadequately restrained.”
   As a result, one of the vehicles moved to the back of the plane, “crippling key hydraulic systems and damaging the horizontal stabilizer components, which rendered the airplane uncontrollable,” the agency said last week. The seven crewmen on board the plane were killed in the April 29, 2013 crash.
   The Boeing 747-400 freighter was carrying five mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. 
   “The crew took on an important mission to support American forces abroad and lost their lives not to enemy fire, but to an accident,’’ said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart in a statement. “We cannot change what happened, but in fully investigating this accident, we hope to find ways to prevent such an accident from happening again.”
   NTSB’s investigation found National Airlines’ cargo operations manual omitted critical information from Boeing and the cargo-handling system manufacturer about properly securing cargo, and contained incorrect restraining methods for special cargo loads.
   The board recommended the Federal Aviation Administration create a certification process for personnel responsible for the loading, restraint, and documentation of special cargo loads on transport-category planes. Other recommendations call on the FAA to improve its ability to inspect cargo aircraft operations, specifically those involving special cargo loads.