Posted on 04/05/2006 3:56:14 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
4/4/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- A veteran C-5 Galaxy pilot said all 17 people survived the April 3 plane crash at Dover Air Force Base, Del., mainly because the pilot did his job.
Col. Udo McGregor said the “100 percent reason” everyone aboard survived the crash was because the pilot did a wings-level landing.
“The survivors are survivors because he put it on the ground wings level,” said the colonel, commander of the 439th Operations Group at Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass.
The transport took off from Dover at about 6:20 a.m. bound for Spain and Southwest Asia. On board were Airmen and several passengers. Base officials said the aircrew noticed a problem with the aircraft soon after takeoff and the pilot turned the aircraft around to land back at the base.
But at 6:42 a.m. the aircraft crashed into a grassy field and broke up into several pieces. Base officials think the aircraft might have struck a utility pole, which cut off the aircraft’s six-story tail section. It had a quarter million pounds of fuel, but miraculously did not catch fire.
Colonel McGregor, a command pilot with more than 10,600 flying hours -- more than 7,000 of those in the Galaxy -- said there are others reasons why the accident cost the Air Force only a transport aircraft.
One is that the aircraft -- almost as long as a football field -- has many crumple zones.
“If you watch car commercials on TV and watch them do the crash testing -- the more metal you have -- the larger the piece of equipment -- the more the chance you have of survival,” he said.
And the cargo plane has so much cargo space below its wings that a wings-level landing gives those on board “a pretty good chance of surviving,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly safe airplane,” said the colonel from Savannah, Ga. “Very, very few accidents for the millions and millions of flying hours that it’s accomplished.”
The colonel has flown all over the world in the C-5. He knows the transport inside and out. The emergency that the Dover crew faced -- a heavy weight, three-engine emergency return -- is a “pretty standard” procedure for which Galaxy pilots are well prepared, he said.
“In this particular case, the experience level of the crew would suggest they’ve done it hundreds of times -- practiced it hundreds of times in a simulator,” he said.
Colonel McGregor has had to deal with similar in-flight emergencies during his 15 years at the helm of the heavy jet. More than once he has had to land a heavily-loaded Galaxy with only three engines. But with about a million parts, many mechanical things can go wrong with the aging aircraft, which entered the Air Force inventory in the June 1970. After so many hours in the air, the aircraft is bound to experience one or two emergencies, he said.
“That’s just part of flying something for an extensive amount of time that has this many moving parts,” the colonel said. “It’s a very complicated airplane.”
The colonel remembers a flight into Osan Air Base, South Korea, when the air conditioning turbine on his C-5 malfunctioned and filled the entire aircraft with smoke. The aircrew made an emergency landing and did an emergency evacuation of 73 passengers -- who exited down the slide from the passenger compartment on the back of the aircraft.
At Dover, the aircrew also used the inflatable slide to evacuate the aircraft.
Colonel McGregor said the aircraft has a great safety record. And the upgrades through which it is going -- like getting new avionics and engines -- will extend its life “a significant number of years.”
“I would say more than 20 years is probably a reasonable guess,” he said. And with the upgrades, “it’s probably even more than that.”
The colonel said two boards will now convene to find out the cause of the accident. The first, a safety investigation board, will try to determine what the issues or problems were. They have 30 to 45 days to come up with answers.
Then, an accident investigation board will convene to “find the magic BB, the causal effect -- the things or things that caused or created the accident,” the colonel said.
The accident investigation board will probably have to have some kind of resolution to the commander of Air Mobility Command by the end of May.
“So it’s a fairly rapid process,” he said.
Holy crap, this guy has more flight hours than I do sleep hours.
Congratulations to Colonel McGregor, he did an excellent job.
Congratulations to Colonel McGregor, he did an excellent job.
I've been aboard them and I still don't believe the dang things fly. I've seen them fly and I still don't believe it.
He was a source for the reporter writing the article, he wasn't the pilot of the C-5 that crashed.
That landing saved their lives.
Our Air Force ROCKS. (not that I'm biased or anything ...)
If that's true little mister it's way past your bedtime...
My mistake and thanks for correction. The pilot did an outstanding job whoever it was.
That headline makes absolutely no sense. That's like "if a plane crashes on the border between the U.S. and Canada, where will they bury the survivors?"
I was at Dover a little over 11 years ago to pick up my daughter, her husband and my granddaughter. My granddaughter was about 6 months old and I hadn't seen her yet. They were coming in from Ramstein AB, Germany on a C-5. About 20 minutes before their flight was due in, I noticed that the fire trucks were starting show up with lights flashing. Having had some experience on a flight line I knew that this meant there was an in-flight emergency. I also knew that their flight was the next one due in. I tried not to show my nervousness so I wouldn't upset my (then) wife and told her it was routine. The plane landed with an engine out without any problems. I've been leery of flying in planes with less than 4 engines since that happened though.
Wow, 3600 hours of extra-galactic flight. I think that beats Piccard and Kirk together!!!
I was informed today by a friend who is in the Air Force that fuel (more than 50,000 gallons when fully loaded) for the C-5 Galaxy aircraft is located in 12 internal wing tanks...thus, a "wings-level landing" was likely the reason the C-5 didn't burst into flames on impact. That pilot was trained well by the best Air Force on earth.
Wow, 3600 hours of extra-galactic flight.
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That's worth a trip to the White House and a commendation or two!!!!
I am no pilot, but common sense would tell me that a wings level landing in a crash would be a more or less a natural response, that is, if you're able to control the plane??
If, this is the case, why do you suppose they make such a deal out of it?
Wow - that's 125 tons of fuel.
Probably to make things look a bit nicer than they actually were.
I'm no pilot either, but I would guess that in this case the C5 was carrying a full load of fuel and a full load of cargo, and one engine was out, which may have required action by the pilot to keep the plane level in the face of off-center/unbalanced thrust. By manipulating the flaps? By shifting in his seat? By throttling back one of the remaining engines? Maybe someone who knows what they're talking about will chime in (I sure don't)...
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