By Marina Malenic
Hundreds of C-130 Hercules cargo planes were being inspected late last week for potential problems with the fasteners that attach the aircraft’s wings to its fuselage, according to officials at Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill.
“This is a time compliance technical order, not an official grounding,” Roger Drinnon, a spokesman for the command told Defense Daily on March 6. “As a preventive measure…Air Mobility Command issued an order for inspection and possible replacement of upper wing joint barrel nuts.”
A C-130 undergoing depot routine maintenance at Robins AFB, Ga., on March 4 was found to have defective barrel nuts, the spokesman said.
“We don’t anticipate significant disruption of operations as a result of this issue,” he added.
The Air Force is awaiting the results of an analysis of all 528 C-130s that will reveal how widespread the defect in the component might be. Both the legacy models and the newer C-130Js are being checked, according to Drinnon.
Officials at Lockheed Martin [LMT], the aircraft’s prime contractor, did not respond to queries by press time late Friday.