More than 15 percent of the approximately 2,350 Lockheed C-130 Hercules production hulls have been lost, including 70 by the US Air Force and the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Not all US C-130 losses have been crashes, 29 of those listed below were destroyed on the ground by enemy action or other non-flying accidents.[1][2]
From 1967 to 2005, the Royal Air Force (RAF) recorded an accident rate of about one Hercules loss per 250,000 flying hours.[3] United States Air Force Hercules (A/B/E-models), as of 1989, had an overall attrition rate of 5 percent as compared to 1 to 2 percent for commercial airliners in the U.S., according to the NTSB, 10 percent for B-52 bombers, and 20 percent for fighters (F-4, F-111), trainers (T-37, T-38), and helicopters (H-3).[4]
This is thought to be a complete listing through July 1, 2012, but omits the JC-130A (53-3130, c/n 3002) test airframe that was tested to destruction and airframes retired or withdrawn from service. By the nature of the Hercules' worldwide service, the pattern of losses provides a barometer of global hotspots over the past fifty years.[1]