Families of service members killed in Mississippi disaster want more answers

The Marine Corps spent 17 months investigating before releasing details this week.

By Dan Lamothe
December 8 at 4:02 PM

Ashley Kundrat and the man she would marry first grew close in high school in Frederick, Md. They dated back then, and by 2004, they were beginning a family that would eventually include a son, a daughter, evenings cooking together and lots of hiking.

All of that changed in a few fateful moments 20,000 feet over rural Mississippi. On July 10, 2017, Marine Staff Sgt. William J. Kundrat, 33, was among 15 Marines and a sailor who were killed when a KC-130T transport plane disintegrated in explosions and crashed in a soybean field in the town of Itta Bena.

In findings released Dec. 6, the service determined that the disaster began when a corroded propeller blade on the plane’s left wing broke free, shooting into the fuselage. That started a chain reaction in which an entire propeller on the right wing snapped off and cut into the body of the plane. The plane fell to pieces in a series of explosions.

The destruction was preventable, investigators found: The corrosion on the first propeller blade to go should have been spotted six years earlier in a maintenance overhaul.

Kundrat’s widow said the long wait for the results of the investigation was frustrating, especially as senior Marine officials granted six time extensions to allow investigators to search for more information. About 17 months later, she and other Gold Star families who lost loved ones were briefed on the findings shortly ahead of its public release.

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