Report: Crew error caused Marine crash

The plane that crashed was similar to this one.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A report released Wednesday in San Diego, California, blames "crew error" for the January crash of a Marine Corps KC-130 refueling plane in Pakistan.

Investigators told CNN, however, that the plane lacked night vision capability that might have prevented the crash.

The pilot of the plane was also denied permission twice to make a "straight shot" landing at Bardari Airfield, which lacked navigational aids and approach lighting, investigators said.

Instead, he was directed to make a more dangerous maneuver to comply with an informal agreement aimed at reducing noise over the nearby Pakistani village of Shamsi, they said.

According to the report, "The mishap air crew lost awareness of their position and impacted terrain."

All seven Marines on board died when the fuel-laden tanker plane hit a steep mountain slope, which the crew apparently did not see on the clear but moonless night, according to the official findings.

It was the deadliest crash of the Afghanistan war. Among the crew members killed was the first female service member to die in the combat zone, a 25-year-old radio operator.

Col. William D. Durrett, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing staff judge advocate, said there was no way to know for certain whether the lack of night vision goggles contributed to the accident, especially since there was little ambient light.

But Durrett told CNN that U.S. troops on the ground were able to see the plane from the ground with night vision equipment, so it is his judgment that with the goggles the crew might have seen the prominent mountain in time to avoid it.

The Marine Corps is upgrading its fleet of KC-130s to include night vision capability, but most of the upgraded planes are in the reserve fleet, a Marine spokesman said.

Though the plane's Ground Proximity Warning System sounded an alarm, it did not provide the crew with adequate time to react because of the sudden rise of the mountain, Durrett said.

Evidence at the crash site showed the plane was in a 22-degree bank to the left when it hit, leading investigators to conclude the crew had probably seen the runway lights and were navigating visually when the crash occurred.

The plane was flying from Jacobabad to Bardari Airfield on the night of January 9. It approached from the southwest but was required to circle around to land from the northeast because of the noise abatement agreement with Shamsi.

Asked whether it would have been safer to allow the pilot to land from the southwest, Durrett said, "Yes, because it would have been a straight shot."

But Durrett added that both the crew and the controllers on the ground believed the plane could be landed safely from the opposite direction.

After the accident, landings from the southeast were permitted, regardless of noise impact.

Investigators found no evidence of a mechanical problem or hostile fire related to the accident.

As a result of the finding, the Marine Corps also is fitting all of its KC-130s with portable laptop computers that enhance the display of data from global positioning satellite receivers in the cockpit.