Crew That Saved Burning Bomber Over Texas In May Finally Named, Awarded.
After weeks of speculation about the circumstances surrounding a May 1, 2018 emergency landing in Texas by a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer heavy bomber from the 7th Bomb Wing, Air Force officials have identified the crew who are being hailed as heroes in the miraculous recovery of the crew and aircraft. Four crew members have been awarded the Air Force’s Distinguished Flying Cross, a high-level award for heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight.
The B-1B heavy bomber was on a training mission on May 1, 2018 when a serious engine fire near the right wing root caused the crew to try to eject from their burning bomber over the Texas desert. When the first crew ejection seat failed to leave the plane successfully, the aircraft commander ordered the crew to immediately stop the escape procedure and managed to fly the damaged and burning aircraft with a crew hatch missing and the cockpit open to the surrounding wind blast to the Midland Air and Space Port near Odessa, Texas where the crew made a successful emergency landing.
Last week at Dyess Air Force Base, the Air Force Global Strike Command commander formally recognized the heroism and extraordinary aerial achievement of that B-1B Lancer aircrew. The quick-thinking actions of the aircrew resulted in the first-ever successful emergency landing of a B-1B experiencing this series of serious malfunctions.
The B-1B bomber involved in the May 1, 2018 emergency landing with the missing hatch following an ejection seat failure. (Photo: Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram)
USAF General Robin Rand, Commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale AFB awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross medal to B-1B crewmembers Major Christopher N. Duhon, Air Forces Strategic – Operations Division chief of future operations at Barksdale AFB, and an instructor pilot with duties at the 28th Bomb Squadron; Captain Matthew Sutton, 28th BS weapon systems officer instructor; 1st Lieutenant Joseph Welch, 28th BS student pilot; and 1st Lieutenant Thomas C. Ahearn, then 28th BS student weapon systems officer who has since completed training and is currently assigned to the 37th BS, Ellsworth AFB, S.D.
The awards satisfy speculation on social media about the Air Force’s handling of the incident following temporary stand-down of the B-1B fleet so safety checks could be performed. Sources on social media voiced frustration after they felt the USAF had not done enough to recognize the efforts of the B-1B crew to save both the personnel on board and the aircraft itself. By early Saturday morning on July 14, it would appear the announcement of the Air Force’s awards to the crew have been met with favor on social media forums familiar with the incident.
Concern about the aging B-1B fleet continues amid speculation about the future of the aircraft set against the backdrop of the Air Force’s upcoming new B-21 Raider bomber program.
The Air Force awarded the crew of the B-1B bomber involved in the May 1, 2018 emergency landing the Distinguished Flying Cross. (Photo: USAF Official)
Here’s Some Cool Footage From The 14th Fighter Squadron, from Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Filmed during the two summer 2017 deployments, the video in this post shows the U.S. Air Force F-16s of the 14th Fighter Squadron from Misawa Air Base, Japan, at work from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and Eielson AFB, where the unit deployed in the last months to take part in Cope North and Red Flag Alaska exercises.
Shot using GoPro cameras the video shows the Japan-based squadron using the 20mm cannon, firing the AGM-88 HARM (High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile) and dropping some GBU-12s along with old-fashioned free fall Mk-82 and Mk-84 iron bombs.
Noteworthy, the clip includes footage filmed as the F-16s escorted a B-1 Lancer from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to Guam to support the U.S. Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Continuous Bomber Presence (CBP). The “Bones” have been supporting the CBP mission since Aug. 6, 2016, when the first B-1s, belonging to the 28th Bomb Wing from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, deployed to Guam, for the first time in a decade, to replace the B-52s and deter North Korea taking part in a significant number of “shows of force” over the Korean Peninsula.
Taking off from Andersen during some of the daily sorties out of Guam, the B-1s have also enjoyed the HVAAE (HIgh Value Air Asset Escort) support from the “Samurais” of the 14th FS.
The Su-27 intercept as seen from the cockpit of the B-1B bomber over the Baltic Sea.
Our friends at Air Forces Monthly have obtained a pretty interesting footage: filmed from inside the cockpit of a “Bone” temporarily deployed to RAF Fairford, UK, to take part in BALTOPS exercise, the short clipo shows a Russian Naval Aviation’s Su-27 Flanker approaching the B-1B’s starboard wing, then banking to pass below the nose of the Lancer.
“AFM was told the Russian pilot acted in a non-aggressive manner throughout the manoeuvre, which saw the fighter assume position off the starboard side before banking and descending below the B-1,” says the story published on AFM’s website.
It’s not clear whether the clip was filmed on the very same day these fantastic shots were taken by U.S. Air Force photographer Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder from the boom position of a KC-135 tanker as a really unusual “formation” consisting of 2x B-1s, 1x B-52 and 1x KC-135 were involved in a photo hop in international airspace over the Baltic Sea when they were joined by a Su-27 Flanker on Friday Jun. 9. In that case the U.S. Air Force stated that the intercept was conducted in a safe and professional way, in contrast with what happened after several previous incidents that the U.S. DoD defined “unsafe” or “unprofessional” with the Russian interceptors maneuvering aggressively in proximity of the American aircraft (read here or here for a couple of examples.)
Indeed, to be honest, the above clip seems to show the Su-27 dangerously close to the U.S. bomber, much more than one would expect from a “safe” maneuver: however, it might be a matter of perspective…
According to AFM, the Flanker in the intercept footage is a Su-27P interceptor belonging to the Fighter Aviation Squadron of the 72 Aviatsionnaya Baza (AvB, Aviation Base) of the Morskaya Aviatsiya Baltiyskogo Flota (MA BF, Naval Aviation of the Baltic Fleet), based at Chkalovsk air base in Kaliningrad Oblast.
H/T Thomas Newdick (@CombatAir) for posting the video.
Take a look at this cool clip of two Spirit bombers arriving in the UK.
On Jun. 9, 2017, two B-2s deployed to RAF Fairford, UK.
Interestingly, the two aircraft, 82-1068 Spirit Of New York (using radio callsign “Mytee 21”) and 88-0329 Spirit Of Missouri (“Mytee 22), launched from their homebase at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, visited a bombing range in the UK before recovering into RAF Fairford.
The following video, filmed by our friend Ben Ramsay, shows the two stealth bombers approaching runway 27 at Fairford, where the Spirits joined the three B-52 Stratofortress and three B-1 Lancer bombers already deployed there to take part in exercise BALTOPS.
Although the U.S. Air Force deploys its bombers to RAF Fairford regularly, it’s quite rare to have the three types on the British base at the same time.
However, the deployment of the “bomber trio” has already taken place last year at Andersen Air Force Base when the three different platforms simultaneously launched from Guam for their first integrated bomber operation in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Is the current deployment to the UK a sign that the trio-bomber force is becoming a routine in the way the strategic assets are operated by USAF?
For one week U.S. Air Force’s Southern Command undertook a surge of its operations against the trafficking of illicit drugs into the United States, using bombers flying as NTISR (non-traditional intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) aircraft.
U.S. Southern Command oversees an area covering more than 40 million square miles, a region whose major challenge is the war against trafficking of illicit drugs into the US.
For one week in August 2016, the Southern Command surged its anti-drug smuggling operations with bombers, KC-135 aerial refuelers, E-8 Joint STARS (Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) and E-3 Sentry AEW (Airborne Early Warning) aircraft that expanded their work supporting the United States Coast Guard and the JIATF-South (Joint Inter Agency Task Force South), the U.S. agency leading the fight against narco-traffickers.
Dubbed the “Big Week”, the operation saw the involvement of B-1 Lancers and B-52 Stratofortresses that were assigned the difficult task of flying over large areas of the ocean in search of suspected trafficker boats acting as non-traditional Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (NTISR) platforms.
The heavy bombers contributed to the surveillance mission sharing the data collected by the targeting systems and onboard sensors with multiple Naval-Coast Guard assets, something they usually don’t train too often.
Still, NTISR is a sort-of secondary mission for all the U.S. bombers performing on-call CAS (Close Air Support) in Afghanistan or Iraq, where they augment traditional ISR efforts by means of their targeting pods with downlink capabilities.
The operation resulted in six metric tons of cocaine seized or disrupted, illegal drug which never made it into the United States.
Stratotankers were important to expand Big Week’s operational reach keeping Air Force bombers in the air and adding critical hours to the surveillance mission, whereas intelligence personnel provided the required informational flow between aircraft, maritime, and intelligence assets so that, once detected, drugs could be taken off the water.
Big Week allowed the joint interdiction team to test their training in a real-world environment, cooperating with agencies and in a scenario and area they don’t typically operate out of.
According to the U.S. Air Force”Big Week was a vast operation, meant to show how members of different agencies and services could operate in a joint environment against a common threat. Big Week proved that a determined and organized drug interdiction team could effectively challenge illicit drug trafficking into the United States.”
This website makes use of cookies, both proprietary or by third part, in order to improve your browsing experience. For more information check our cookies policy.
By closing this message, proceed surfing or using this website, you accept to use cookies. Don’t show this again
