Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Night time flying is dangerous. Years ago I asked a friend of mine remarked that they would "scatter and pray" when their formation of blackhawks flew into cloud cover.
Well...OK, that's Army helicopters at night.
We (USN) used to fly in weather at night. Sucked. But we did it. If you've seen the Blue Angels, you know that formation flying is something Navy pilots do well.
As far as air refueling at night, did that, too. Close formation flying involving actual contact with another airplane. At night. In the weather.
In fact, one night, during Desert Storm, in the clouds, I rendezvoused on a KC-10 over Southern Iraq. "Multiple targets" said my RIO, and I slowed the closure rate to 10 knots. In the gloom, approaching on a 45 degree bearing line, I found myself on the wing of an F/A-18 and stopped my approach to the tanker there. As the tanker flew out of the clouds, I found that I was one of about 6 fighters on this tanker. All Navy, all flying close echelon formation in the clouds at night, and at least the outer three guys, including me, were unable to see the KC-10 itself, we just stopped getting closer when we found ourselves flying on the wing of the guy who was next in line.
So, back to the post... if this was a night refueling mission, and both airplanes collided, and subsequently did not return to base, then I am afraid the one survivor is the only survivor. Probably the F/A-18 driver. The ejection seat likely saved him/her. The C-130 crew has poor odds in a mid-air collision. Bailout requires donning a parachute, and making your way to a door. That's hard (nearly impossible) to do if the airplane is damaged and out of control.