Indonesia Hercules C-130 was crashed in Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

Reports says,

The plane took off around that time as mentioned above, after less than 5 minutes since taking off, it suffered multiple engine failure and tried returning to base. By then, the plane was already flying upside down and crashed into rural areas in the direction of the air field, burst into inferno as it was fully fueled. Most of the buildings there are residential pockets with many people going about their daily routines at that time.

The question lies not only in what causes the plane's engines suddenly dying shortly after taking off when routine pre-flight check been done. Though is would hardly be a surprise with military equipment malfunctioning, the plane like most of the other military vehicles in the country, are after all around 50 years old.

However, the bigger issue is how a military plane intended to fly east to the border between Papua and Papua New Guinea carrying 14 relief armed personnel and several tons of ammunitions, could also be carrying hundreds of civilians and 2 tons of durian. These civilians paid between USD90 - USD110 to fly in a non-commercial plane without complying to civil aviation safety standards; safety belt, proper sitting, etc. Who gave clearance for such practice under normal condition (not war time, the passengers were not refugees, etc.), and who benefited from the "ticket" sales, are among some of the questions the media are looking into.

The practice however, is not a secret and nothing new, military war ships in some isolated islands not served by civilian transportation means, help serve as island hoppers to transport people and goods every few weeks as it patrol in the area.

Understandably they could have chosen to fly in such sub-standard manner due to the low flying cost, since flying in commercial service planes could cost 5 folds (even on LCC planes). And this practice could have been going for years. On top of this 'civilian aviation service' by military plane, the army are also facing even more problem with the ammunitions reported missing. With Medan (in North Sumatra Province) close to Aceh (autonomous province in the far western tip of Sumatra island next to Medan), and Muslim separatist are still active there especially in the forest bordering both provinces, there's legitimate reason to fear of it falling into the wrong hands.

 

countries routinely use military equipment that's decades old, it's expensive and time consuming to develop replacements so they don't do it very often. Given how widely used the C-130 is I doubt the age has anything to do with it. If anything it hasn't been properly maintained.

 

Yes, without any doubt replacing them is pricy. For a country with limited military budget and large military unit, making the most out of what they got is compulsory. Unfortunately in the case of Indonesian military vehicles, especially those that came from NATO member countries; e.g. USA, France, etc. age does play a factor besides poor maintenance. Why? For some years during the transition from 2nd President to 3rd President, the country was embargoed by America, thus they had to cannibal parts or restore used components from similar vehicles. And because of that, the country opted to not fully rely on US ally countries for military equipment any longer, thus since the 4th President onwards, purchases are diversify including opting to buy from Russian sources.