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Reserve unit scrambles to guide troubled aircraft to safe landing

  • Published
  • By Capt. Shannon Mann
  • 916ARW/PAO
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The Air Force Reserve Command's 916th Air Refueling Wing scrambled to launch an early morning mission April 17, 2007, to rendezvous with, and help safely land an Air Force aircraft that lost critical instrumentation.

The aircrew from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., flying an NKC-135, called an in-flight emergency above the base's airspace.

"We got the call shortly after 7 a.m.," said Master Sgt. James Loper, 916th ARW Command Post. "In less than an hour maintenance generated a plane, operations generated a crew and command post coordinated the efforts to help this crew in trouble."

Lt. Col. Todd Chaney, chief of Standardization and Evaluation, received the call to get ready to fly.

"They basically lost the instruments that tell them their airspeed and altitude," said Colonel Chaney. "We were able to rendezvous with them above our airspace, fly on their wing and help them land."  The wing flies the KC-135 Stratotanker, a close variant of the troubled aircraft they were to assist. 

Colonel Chaney explained that this was the first time he'd ever helped a plane visually land, although he has been on the other end of the scenario.

"It's pretty unusual to lose everything," he said. "They did have a hand-held GPS and ground radar was able to give them some information, so they weren't totally blind. But it is still disconcerting when something like this happens."

Colonel Chaney said the maintainers were certainly not expecting something like this to happen, but that their awesome dedication to the mission provided a plane within 15 minutes.

"Our jet and ops crew walked them into a perfect landing," said Maj. Pete Wojihowski, 916th Maintenance Group commander.

Lt. Col. Joseph Powers, the troubled aircraft's commander, said the crew followed their training, came up with a plan of execution and selected Seymour as the closest place to land. He said that those involved in their safe recovery were outstanding.

"They were a valuable asset to our safe landing," he said.

A maintenance crew from Kirtland is enroute to Seymour Johnson to repair the aircraft.  (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)