2010 Alaska USAF C-17 crash

On July 28, 2010, the crew was conducting a local training flight in preparation for the upcoming Arctic Thunder Air Show, to be held at the Elmendorf AFB from 31 July to 1 August. The C-17 is commonly featured in U.S. air shows, highlighting its short takeoff and landing capability. The plane had flown earlier that day with a different crew. At approximately 6:22 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time (UTC-8), the C-17 took off from Runway 06 at Elmendorf AFB to practice the display routine. After the initial climb, followed by a left turn, the pilot executed a sharp right turn. As the aircraft banked, the stall warning system activated to alert the crew of an impending stall. Instead of implementing stall recovery procedures, the pilot continued the turn and the aircraft entered a stall from which recovery was not possible. The plane crashed and exploded in a fireball about from the airfield. ==Background==

Aircraft The aircraft was a four-engined C-17 Globemaster III built by Boeing. The mishap was the first fatal crash of a C-17. Crew The four crew members on board all died; they were Majors Michael Freyholtz and Aaron Malone, pilots assigned to the Alaska ANG's 249th Airlift Squadron; Captain Jeffrey Hill, a pilot assigned to Elmendorf's active-duty Air Force's 517th Airlift Squadron; and Senior Master Sergeant Thomas E. Cicardo, a loadmaster of the Alaska ANG's 249th Airlift Squadron. ==Aftermath==

, three days after the crash. A member of the Anchorage Fire Department described how a fireball rose to around into the air, an estimated from Anchorage. Debris from the crash was spread along of the Alaska Railroad tracks which carry passenger and freight trains daily through the base area, north to Wasilla, although no trains were scheduled to be passing through at the time of the crash. Track repairs to the nearby railroad caused freight services to be suspended, and passenger services to be diverted by bus. The air show went ahead as planned as a tribute to the four dead airmen. ==Investigation==

The investigation report into the crash was released on 13 December 2010. It blamed pilot error, stating that the pilot's overconfidence in executing an aggressive right-turn maneuver led to a low-altitude stall and subsequent crash, despite the warnings correctly provided by the aircraft's stall-warning system, to which neither the pilot nor any other crew member responded effectively. ==See also==