Accident Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules N15ST,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 326923

Date:	Saturday 4 October 1986
Time:	04:10
Type:	Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules
Owner/operator:	Southern Air Transport
Registration:	N15ST
MSN:	4391
Year of manufacture:	1971
Total airframe hrs:	45622 hours
Cycles:	20472 flights
Engine model:	Allison 501-D22A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	San Antonio-Kelly AFB, TX (SKF) - United States of America
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	San Antonio-Kelly AFB, TX (SKF/KSKF)
Destination airport:	Warner Robins-Robins AFB, GA (WRB/KWRB)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
N15ST arrived at Kelly AFB at 02:20. The loading supervisor recalled that he saw the elevator in a faired position with the horizontal stabilizer. (If the flight controls had been in their neutral position, the elevator would have been in a trailing edge down position relative to the horizontal stabilizer.) At 04:01 the crew taxied to runway 15 and received takeoff clearance at 04:05. The aircraft was seen to rotate after a 4500 feet takeoff roll and climbed to 100-200 feet. The plane then attained an extreme nose high attitude, climbing to 600-700 feet an entering a left roll or bank. Altitude was lost until the Hercules struck the ramp area in a near inverted attitude, slid between 2 hangars and exploded.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The use by the carrier of a non-approved device designed to raise the elevator during loading operations which was not properly stowed by the flight crew and which lodged in the controls, preventing the flight crew from controlling the airplane during take-off."

Accident investigation: