2017 United States Marine Corps KC-130 crash

The 2017 United States Marine Corps KC-130 crash occurred around 4 P.M. on Monday, July 10, 2017, when a Lockheed KC-130T Hercules aircraft of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) crashed, killing all 16 people on board. The aircraft was from Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) based at Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York. Debris from the aircraft was found in Leflore County, Mississippi. It is currently under investigation. The USMC released a statement calling the event a "mishap."

The crash and the 2016 Lockhart hot air balloon crash (in which 16 people were also killed) are the deadliest aviation accidents in the United States since the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in 2009, which killed 50 people. It is also the deadliest aviation disaster in Mississippi since the National Transportation Safety Board began keeping records in 1962, and the deadliest Marine Corps disaster since 2005, when a U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing 31 people.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Lockheed KC-130T Hercules tanker/transport of the United States Marine Corps built in 1993, with Bureau Number (BuNo.) 165000. The aircraft was nicknamed Triple Nuts because of the abbreviated number "000" on its nose. The aircraft was initially delivered to the United States Air Force in 1993 and later was transferred to the United States Navy and then assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps. It was damaged on the ground during a storm on 1 June 2004 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas. As a result of the storm, it was flipped onto its port wingtip, damaging a refueling pod. It was quickly repaired and placed back into service.

Accident
The accident aircraft was reported to have suffered an in-flight explosion and mid-air break up at an altitude around 20,000 feet while en-route from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina to Naval Air Facility El Centro in California, before it crashed 85 mi north of Jackson, Mississippi, killing all sixteen occupants. Debris was spread in a 5 mi radius from the crash site and firefighters attending the crash site used 4000 USgal of foam to extinguish the post-crash fire.