The pilot then used the night-vision goggle case to hold the elevators in place so that he would not have to manually hold the elevators’ controls, according to the release.

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As the crew was flying at night, the pilot and co-pilot were wearing night-vision devices upon takeoff. Typically, night-vision devices, including monocular and binocular variants, severely limit the wearer’s ability to see at short distances.

“Neither pilot recognized and removed the NVG case after loading operations were complete or during takeoff,” the release said.

As the C-130 took off, the locked elevator position caused the aircraft to point upward and climb at a rate that was unsustainable given the aircraft’s speed, and it soon stalled. The co-pilot misidentified the problem, resulting in “improper” recovery techniques, and the aircraft crashed into an outer guard tower, killing three Afghans standing post. Twenty-eight seconds after takeoff, 14 people, including the four crew members, two Air Force security personnel and five civilian contractors aboard, were dead.

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The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the crash, saying it shot down the aircraft.

“Our hearts go out to the family members and friends of those killed in this accident,” Brig. Gen. Patrick X. Mordente, who led the accident investigation board, said in a statement. “The investigation team pushed an intense fact-finding investigation to understand what happened on Oct. 2, 2015, and to honor all whose lives were cut short.”

The aircraft was from the 317th Airlift Group, stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, and was assigned to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield.

Before the October incident, the last time a C-130J crashed was when one overran a landing strip south of Kabul at Forward Operating Base Shank. Although no one was killed, the aircraft was destroyed.

This post has been updated to reflect the different variants of C-130s and when they entered service.