HC-130 fuel starvation testing

On 22 Nov 1996, an HC-130P crew from Portland, OR, call sign King 56, declared an emergency stating they had engine problems. Approximately 3 minutes later, all four engines flamed out and the aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The resulting safety investigation centered around three areas: an electromechanical problem with the propeller synchrophaser, the fuel control system, or fuel system management. The US Air Force Safety Center enlisted the help of the 418 Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB to investigate different fuel management scenarios that hypothetically could lead to a four engine flameout. These scenarios were (1) auxiliary tank fuel boost pump failure, (2) auxiliary tank running dry, (3) fuselage tank boost pump failure, (4) fuselage tank running dry, (5) external tank boost pump failure, (6) external tank running dry, (7) improper priming of the crossfeed manifold (main tank boost pumps on and off) and (8) fuel gravity feed evaluation. All of these scenarios except for improper priming of the crossfeed manifold assumed that all four main tank boost pumps were off. If any of these points caused flameouts, proper engine recovery procedures would be verified during restart