Posted on 05/05/2013 6:44:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE (CBSLA.com) A Palmdale mother of a seven-month-old son was one of three airman killed in a Central Asia tanker plane crash Friday.
The tanker was supporting American troops in Afghanistan.
Capt. Victoria Tori A. Pinckney, 27, was killed in the crash of a KC-135 tanker near Chon-Aryk, Krygyzstan, the Defense Department announced.
KKTV, a Colorado Springs CBS affiliate, reports that Pinckney was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and recent mom.
She was one of three airmen in a KC-135 refueling plane that crashed in the mountains after a midair explosion during a refueling operation, the Pentagon announced.
The Pentagon said two other airmen were also killed: Capt. Mark T. Voss, 27, of Boerne, Texas, and Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of Bakersfield. All three were attached to the Air Forces 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild AFB in Washington state.
A wing commander at Fairchild told KREM television in Spokane that the loss has devastated the base.
We will forever honor Tyler, Tori and Tre as patriots and heroes, the commander said. Team Fairchild will do everything we can to support their families and friends during this profoundly difficult time.
Mothers in the military on the front lines. Brought to you by the leftist PC hacks of DC. ‘Equality’ they say—explain that to her now motherless son.
I wonder if a MANPAD struck this aircraft or another Surface-To-Air missile of some sort.. Perhaps part of the scores of MANPADs that are ‘missing’?
To pose that question is to answer it. One day we will pay.
So far, no evidence of a MANPAD attack; but it is rather odd that we’ve lost three aircraft in that region over the past week; a civilian 747 cargo jet that went down at Bagram (load shifted on takeoff, sending the aircraft into a stall); an RC-12 recce bird that went down in southern Afghanistan, and more recently, the KC-135.
The Stratotanker has been around forever, and it’s a very reliable platform—almost no history of them simply blowing up in mid-air. At first glace, it sounds a bit like a KC-135 that exploded while descending in to Howard AFB, Panama back in the 1980s. It was eventually determined that the crew left a pump running in an empty fuel tank after their in-flight refueling operation was complete. The pump overheated and ignited fuel vapors that remained in the tank. However, fixes were supposedly implemented to prevent that from happening again.
Palmdale is in the KCBS viewing area.
See post #7
Spark in the center fuel tank.
RIP.
In the past, you had the Aircraft Commander, Co-pilot, Navigator, and boom operator/cargo master.
On many missions one maintenance person from the ground often flew with them. I logged many a mission over SE Asia in one.
Wonder if The other Capt was a Dad?
The Tech Sgt was.
Just a hunch, but it’s a dateline from Palmdale and she was from there.
An Air Force grad is probably not an “airman”. Just saying.
It sounds like the optempo for getting stuff out of Afghanistan is taking its toll.
i guess i'm so jaded as to the L$M PC crap anymore that i take it for granted now days... RIP
Tank you.
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