Chilean C-130 Hercules missing

[probes]

A transport aircraft bound for Antarctica on a maintenance mission at a Chilean base went missing on Monday evening, the Chilean Air Force said.
The C-130 Hercules was carrying 38 people, including 17 crew members and 21 passengers, the air force statement said.
The Hercules left the Chabunco Air Base in Punta Arenas, near Chile’s southern tip, at 4:55 p.m. and lost radio contact at 6:13 p.m.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/worl ... ssing.html

[Rwy in Sight]

It is fairly strange to happen on the middle of the trip. Also it seems the 17 crew members should read Chilean Air Force staff. Obviously hope for the best.

[Capetonian]

Sadly the Chilean Air Force has now stated that the aircraft has crashed and that a search and rescue is under way.

[Rwy in Sight]

I am not familiar with the precise terminology but I thought there are four phases on such cases like uncertainty, distress. Also isn't Search and Rescue launched as soon as the time of fuel exhaustion has passed?

[Pontius Navigator]

RiS digging into memory, I seem to remember ETA for a Jet and ETA plus 2 hours for a piston, but that was in the days when jet endurance was short and piston endurance long.

In a case like this what checks were normally made? Did the mandate an hourly report? On this route were comms much more limited?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Tracing action starts on fuel exhaustion (or maybe earlier, depending on SOPs), but if there are places they could have put down then tracing normally starts with contacting those places, which might be difficult or delayed.
I would imagine an hourly airborne report on HF is standard down there also.

[prospector]

https://www.rt.com/news/475710-chile-mi ... age-found/

[barkingmad]

“Some of the debris recovered...” but still floating in the water? I must put that pedantic mental operating program away.

Tragic for the families and relatives and presumably neither voice nor DFDR or equivalent will be available for recovery from deep waters?

[ian16th]

Not an inkling of what happened.

[Rwy in Sight]

Few accidents are occurring in cruise phase thus difficult to associate with another one.

[TheGreenGoblin]

For what it is worth, given the dubious provenance of this rumour, it is being reported that a radio signal indicating some sort of electrical issue was received before the aircraft went down. We might be in STENDEC country here... however it is significant that the Chilean military aren't refuting this rumour.

An electrical issue?

[Boac]

Parts of the structure apparently have been recovered.

[ian16th]

Chilean air force chief says cause of Antarctic plane crash may never be known.

Something sudden and catastrophic?

[Rwy in Sight]

From cruise and if a bomb is excluded (and we don't talk about Air Chance), something major should have happened. Being an Air Force a mishandled flight upset can be safety excluded.