Damaged C-17 moved off Bagram runway

[unhappycamper]

Crash recovery and emergency management crews survey a C-17 Globemaster III on Jan. 31 as it rests on the active runway of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, after landing Jan. 30 with its landing gear retracted. More than 120 airmen, DoD civilians and contractors successfully removed the crippled aircraft from the runway Feb. 2.


Damaged C-17 moved off Bagram runway
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Feb 5, 2009 6:04:53 EST

More than 200 people and a 120-ton crane were needed to move a badly damaged C-17 Globemaster off a runway at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

The C-17 made a wheels-up landing Friday at the base, the largest military airfield in Afghanistan. While the accident did not completely shut down Air Force and Army flight operations out of Bagram, the plane wreckage limited the use of Bagram until Monday’s operation.

“A lengthy runway closure is our worst nightmare at Bagram,” Brig. Gen. Mike Holmes, commander of Bagram’s 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, said in Air Force release.

Crash recovery teams, some flown in because of the incident, developed a plan to lift the $200 million plane long enough to lower its landing gear.

“Being a first-time incident did not impact our course of action. ... This is what we train for,” said Tech. Sgt. Joseph Mixson, lead team chief for crash recovery. “We put together a group of experts so we could pool our resources and see what was available to work with at the time.”


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/news/2009/02/airforce_c17_bagram_020409w/%2e