SIDEBARS
WHO'S TO BLAME: It's not clear that the King-56 crew knew about the problem that likely caused their plane to crash.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Fatal military mishaps are disturbingly commonplace.

FOLLOW UPS
A Force to Reckon With: Military critics say Oregon’s senators will have a tough time getting colleagues to crack down on lax A.F. investigations.

ERR FORCE. The King-56 widows aren’t the only Portlanders tormented by military crash investigations

Critics cite another flaw in the Air Force investigation of the King-56 crash

Recurrent Problems: a new Air Force memo reveals that C-130s continue to suffer from electrical problems suspected of causing November's King-56 crash.

Damage Control: The ballyhooed Air Force agreement to further investigate the King-56 crash avoids real reforms.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
BACKGROUND MATERIAL ABOUT THE KING 56 CRASH
 
-The harrowing testimony of lone survivor Sgt. Bobby Vogel

-A transcription of the last 2 minutes 48 seconds of the King-56 cockpit recording

-Biographies of the deceased airmen

-Testimony of Major Walt Mulder, a pilot who suggested a likely cause for the King-56 crash that was dismissed by investigators

-An Air Force safety bulletin that supports Mulder's testimony and alerts C-130 crews to those problems

-The Accident Board's Statement of Opinion

-An Air Force letter rebuffing a request by Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden for an outside review of the King-56 investigation

-Air Force Fact Sheet about the C-130 aircraft

-A diagram of a C-130 engine

-A letter from the Air Force safety director warning of impending "disaster" because of "shallow and incomplete" crash investigations.

-The so-called "April Fools'" letter that the Air Force's top general sent in response to the safety director's warning.

-Air Force safety official Alan Diehl's letter to Congress, detailing 30 faulty accident investigations.

-Editorial in The Oregonian telling King-56 widows to stop asking questions about the Air Force investigation

An Air Force memo obtained by Willamette Week details the problems behind a recent C-130 engine failure--or rollback--in Colorado.

10,985 U.S. aircraft accidents occurred between 1991 and '95. Only 195, or 1.8 percent, were unsolved, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Pentagon Inspector General recently praised the Air Force, saying its "safety investigation boards are staffed with the technical expertise needed to accurately determine causes of aircraft mishaps."
 

Lockheed-Martin is headquartered in House Speaker Newt Gingrich's district. L-M's political action committee has "given thousands to his campaigns on top of corporate donations to tax-exempt foundations allied with the GOP leader," according to The Wall Street Journal.

On Capitol Hill, the term "C-130 math" refers to the fact that Congress has bought 10 times more C-130s than the Pentagon requested in the last decade.

The Enemy Within

Although the death of 10 Air Force reservists off the Oregon coast made local headlines last year, fatal military mishaps are disturbingly commonplace. In the past two decades, U.S. military personnel have been more likely to be killed in accidents than in battle.

Since 1979, accidents have killed more than 29,000 men and women in the U.S. military, while only 558 soldiers, sailors and airmen have died in combat, according to a Boston Globe series published last week.

The Globe's six-month investigation found that aviation crashes were the most costly and among the most common accidents. From 1991-96, there were 198 major Air Force crashes--about one every 11 days.

The newspaper's investigation was particularly critical of the Air Force's crash investigations. According to the three-part series:

* "The Air Force has a fundamental conflict of interest in its investigation procedures";

* "Safety-related criticism of command decisions is dismissed";

* "Commanding officers sometimes direct investigators away from areas that could reflect poorly on their leadership";

* "Accidents are sometimes misclassified to improve safety statistics";

* "Critics believe the flaws in the system used to investigate air crashes are a principal reason why the military accident rate remains five times higher than that for commercial flights."

In criticizing Air Force crash probes, the newspaper focused on the fact that the Air Force investigates itself. A former Air Force safety official compared the Air Force process to a system that would allow TWA to investigate the explosion of its own Flight 800. Such a system, critics said, allows some Air Force investigators to publicly downplay mechanical problems.

The series also noted that Congress has never conducted a comprehensive review of safety in the military. To read The Globe's series, visit its Web site at www.boston.com.