The Value of a Loadmaster

I usually avoid posting on such things, and you have to feel for the family members and friends of the lost - but when the enemy tries to take credit when they deserve none - sometimes you have to make an exception.

First of all remember, seven of our countrymen were lost in the video below.

Video apparently shot from a vehicle dashcam shows the National Airlines Boeing 747 taking off from the Bagram Airfield military base, just north of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, on Monday.
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Seven passengers – all of them American citizens – were killed in the crash
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The Taliban was quick to take credit for downing the cargo plane, a claim which NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dismissed as “false.” NATO said emergency personnel who arrived at the scene were investigating the cause of the crash, adding that no insurgent activity in our around the base was recorded at the time.

When the flight recorders are retrieved, we'll know more - but one thing is clear; the Taliban did not take this plane down. Smart money is that after takeoff, the load shifted, CG shifted aft, stall, and that's all she wrote.



NB: this happened on 29APR13. The date on the dashboard camera is wrong.

Hat tip PD.