Posted on 02/22/2008 11:16:36 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
A B-52 bomber on a training mission from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana was forced to make an emergency landing at the Minot International Airport early this morning.
According to a press release from Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs office, the five crew members from the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale declared an in-flight emergency due to aircraft malfunctions and deteriorating weather conditions at the base.
The B-52 just recently left the airport.
No one from the Minot Air Force Base could be reached for comment on the situation.
In the press release it stated that the 5th Bomb Wing Commander Colonel Westa is appreciative of the help from the city ON CAM of Minot and the International Airport in assisting them with the situation and their on-going support of the Minot Base.
Airport director Patrick Dame says military aircraft routinely land at the airport but the use of a municipal runway by a B-52 is very uncommon.
Dame says the airport's 77-hundred foot runway is able to handle the B-52 but it isn't as long as military personnel would like.
We'll have more on this when it becomes available.
busy week, and no fatalities. Life is good.
Holy crap, what’s going on with our Air Force?
Gross neglect on the part of our govt. leaders is taking its toll. This is what happens when you refuse to fund the military properly because global warming lies and entitlement programs have become more important. During the Kennedy Administration, military spending was 42% of our GDP. Today, it’s about 4%. How much blood can you squeeze from a frickin’ turnip?
Every hostile country in the world is upgrading their military while we let ours crumble into dust. It’s disgusting.
Sadly, one of the pilots involved in the collision between F-15C’s over the Gulf of Mexico three days ago died of his injuries.
:(
Why is a B-52 out of Barksdale (LA) making an emergency landing in ND in February? Why was it there?
Not that there’s any connection, but this reminds me of the “missing” nuke story from September/October 2006 when someone did not follow protocol/chain of command/whatever regulations and flew nukes across the country. Wasn’t Barksdale a part of that story as well?
Disgusts me a fair amount.
IMO, the eight Clinton years were terribly decimating to our military because of overdeployments and underfunding. These eight Bush years or even greater deployments but not commensurately greater funding seem to be doing the same. Maybe my standards have been set by the Reagan years. But we will soon be facing an Islamic threat even greater than the Soviets were -- and the Russians are rebuilding. We better have the most military-bolstering administration and Congress we can elect in the next three years -- or too much of America could be toast -- literally.
At least McCain should be counted on to support the Navy if he wants a carrier named after him. But what about the Air Force and Army and Marines? One could hope he would at least support the fliers in the USAF -- but his record is not good. Maybe a good VP choice could support the Army and Marines -- -- Duncan Hunter?
Minot is a B-52 base too. It was probably trying to get to the base when the weather forced them to land at the IAP about 15 miles south. Man, landing a B-52 on a 7700 ft runway in bad weather! I bet the pucker factor for the aircrew was quite high.
It’s been starved, piratically every dime is going to that shit hole in Iraq! We've been there longer than it’s taken to fight WWII !
Here’s one viewpoint, from the Air Force! (Air Force Magazine, Daily Email Report, 2/20/2008):
Straight Talk: The Air Force is beginning to be more vocal in articulating its need for a big shot in the arm to modernize its already “geriatric” aircraft fleet. More and more senior service officials are coming out on the record and citing the need for an extra $20 billion on average annually for the next 20 years, saying that, without such infusions, the air dominance that the US has enjoyed for decades will erode if not disappear altogether. “What we’ve done is put the requirement on the table that says, ‘If we’re going to do the missions you’re going to ask us to do, it will require this kind of investment,” Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, director of strategic planning on the Air Staff, told the Associated Press in a story filed Feb. 19. “Failing that, we take what is already a geriatric Air Force ... and we drive it for another 20 years into an area of uncertainty.”
The Air Force has established that, to carry out the national military strategy and protect the homeland, its needs 86 fully modern combat wings, which it refers to collectively as the Required Force. Since existing and projected budget toplines will not get it to that level of fighters, bombers, tankers, rescue helicopters, manned and unmanned intelligence platforms, and satellites, the $20 billion increase is necessary, the senior officials are saying. We expect to hear this consistent message at this week’s AFA Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, during the Congressional hearings on the service’s Fiscal 2009 request, and throughout the course of the year as the Fiscal 2010 program objective memorandum takes shape and USAF, like the other services, prepares for a new Administration.
But are things really as bad as the Air Force is saying? Just ask Air Force Special Operations Command about its MC-130s covert insertion/extraction airplanes and AC-130 gunships. “We are literally flying the wings off these two airplanes,” Brig. Gen. Brad Heithold, who overseas the command’s plans, programs, requirements and assessments, told AP.
Got it. Thanks for clarifying for me. I did not connect the AFB being 15 miles away with the story. I was distracted by the whole “Minot” thing. I hadn’t a clue as to where it was and had to look it up. Brrrrr.
Thanks
Donuts.
It isn’t going to happen. doesn’t matter who the next president is they are all libs.
7700 foot runway? Getting the plane out should be interesting.
When you add in the time it took to pacify Germany and turn it over to legitimate self rule ... (sound like Iraq?) we have NOT been in Iraq ‘longer than it took to fight WWII’.
The fight for Europe did NOT end on VE day.
Don’t let the lieberals pull you in on “how long we’ve been in Iraq”
Ping - Buff ‘unscheduled landing’
Watch out for Bushbots.
They'll be along shortly to point out that W's seven year record of gross dereliction of duty in this regard is Clinton's fault.
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