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Report blames brakes, pilot for E-2C mishap

Bad brakes and pilot error led to an E-2C Hawkeye accident in March in which an aircraft swerved off the runway and sustained more than $10 million in damage.

The Hawkeye was landing after a training flight at Chambers Field in Norfolk, Va., on March 19 when it skidded off the runway and broke its landing gear, according to a Judge Advocate General Manual Investigation report obtained by Navy Times. No one was injured.

The aircraft’s problems began as it was approaching for a roll-out landing on the runway only to realize that the cockpit lights that show whether the propellers are ready for landing — known as beta lights — were not illuminated.

When the beta lights don’t illuminate, it means the plane will have trouble decelerating on the runway. When this happens, pilots are trained to conduct an arrested landing if possible. The landing strip at Chambers Field includes arresting gear to simulate carrier landings.

Rather than land, the pilot came around for a second approach, the report says. A crew member pulled out a checklist and suggested an arrested landing, but the pilot dismissed the suggestion, saying the lights were probably on a dimmer nighttime setting and there was no real problem, the report says.

On the second approach, the plane touched down, blew a left tire and began to swerve. The pilot dropped the tailhook in a last-minute attempt to catch the airfield’s arresting wire. The plane veered off the runway, parts of the landing gear broke off, and the plane slid on its belly for about 250 feet, according to the report.

Mishap investigators recommended that Naval Air Systems Command modify the landing system controls and add a secondary signal system.

Cmdr. Donald Basden, the commanding officer of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120, reviewed the investigation and suggested that NavAir should also develop a “more robust braking system for all E-2 and C-2 aircraft.”

NavAir said plans to improve the brakes are on the horizon.

“There are currently no funded programs to develop a more robust braking system for the E-2 and C-2 aircraft. However, funding is being requested for fiscal year 2012 to improve operational ground controllability on the E-2C, E-2D and C-2A aircraft,” command officials said in a written statement. “If funded, the program would address those system components which affect aircraft ground controllability, and the braking system would be included in the effort.”

Concerns about the brakes on Hawkeyes date back to 2006, when Lt. Shawn Frazier wrote an article discussing the issue in Approach, a naval aviation safety magazine published by the Naval Safety Center.

“The brakes on the E-2 aren’t much better than the ones on my mountain bike, and any amount of heavy breaking causes them to heat up — fast,” Frazier wrote in the September-October issue.