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Comment by HeWhoLurksLate | Hacker News Reader

...okay then, looks like I was wrong. Guess they have a better PR department?

Boeing's (aeronautic business) end-users are millions of passengers, Lockheed Martin's end-users are Defense and Intelligence. No need for damage control if mum's the word.

They were "smart" enough to get out of the airliner business after the rather spectacular failure of the L-1011 and the whole wings falling off thing they went through with the Electra.

The military has a much higher tolerance for bullshit. The wings keep falling off the C-130 and the military keeps flying them (and the C-5).

I can't find a lot about c130 wings falling off. I found this which implies a known problem for c130a's wingbox which has a billion to retrofit with a new design - https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-sad-story-of-tanker-130-...

Any more information?

Not much more information, but it's happened a few times.

https://www.iprr.org/comps/T82story.htm

https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/c130-crash-of-197...

https://www.defensedaily.com/hercules-crash-in-baghdad-point...

But the most recent incident you've cited is 18 years old. I'd hardly say "they keep falling off and they keep flying them" for that.

For context the Electra, Lockheed's penultimate airliner, lost its wings twice. After that airlines stopped buying it. Meanwhile the FAA put out another wing related AD for the C-130 in 2021.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/14/2021-10...

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