Posted on 04/03/2006 5:10:20 AM PDT by Trust but Verify
Birds are a major danger to those planes.
The area where it went down is a prime area for the snow and Canada geese.
Gabz:
Talking about snowgeese I wonder if that C5 hit a migrating flock of snowgeese????
I grew up in Dover (was actually born on the Base) and now live about 15 miles South of the base, right in one of the landing paths. We see these fly over every day. It is amazing that the accident wasn't much worse than it appears. I think the crew deserves a huge amount of credit from what I've heard of the incident. They recognized the problem, took the proper steps, put her down in a field rather than in a populated area, and most of the crew was able to walk away. Simply outstanding on their part.
Prayers for the ones more seriously injured...
Unless they've moved it recently, that's just off the southeast end of the main runway.
Mods, if posting Mapquest maps is a no-no, please remove, I just grabbed one in a hurry.
I haven't heard anything in the reports I've caught.......but given the time of year, it wouldn't surprise me.
I only had 1 breakdown and it was on a C-5 and in Dover. It was the most boring 36 hour stop. But I was happy to do it. We had just begun startup and one of the engines caught fire.
The C-5 is flying in style compared to our 10-20 hour missions on the EC-130 and RC-135.
Yup - that BIG "x" is exactly where it is.
If the story is right about 2 engines out, bird ingestion is a good first guess.
Digging up some pictures to give folks a idea how many snowgeese are in the area around Dover before migrating!
We always got reports about black birds in the area when we flew into or out of Dover.
Problem with #2 shortly after takeoff, emergency declared, attempted to return to Dover, crashed on approach.
The circle indicates the location of the tail section from the crash site.
There have been a few others though I don't know how many off the top of my head.
Gabz,
Don't know if you moved away before the talks about a trash facility near the base or not, but the military's main argument against locating a proposed facility near the base was exactly because of the birds it would attract. Fortunately, the military won this one.
The site looks like it's very near the John Dickinson Plantation. I was just there last Wednesday with my duaghter's class on a field trip. Boy would that have been traumatic...
To bring something that big down in a cornfield, that intact, with no fire, and supposedly on three (or fewer) engines? That, folks, is an absolutely masterful job of flying, probably compounded by some significant divine intervention.
}:-)4
I was still there during the fights of the trash facility. I agree with you, fortunately the military won that fight.
It's very close to the Dickinson Plantation.
I thought the thing looked in pretty good shape. They did a great job. I had the pleasure of loading/unloading one in support of an excercise once in the '80's. Was a lot of fun....
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