980984. Grand Forks crew earns award for 'miraculous' landing
by Tech. Sgt. John Norgren
319th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AFNS) -- Five Grand Forks crew
members, who safely landed their KC-135 Stratotanker despite a broken
right main landing gear, have won the Air Force Association's 1997 Brig.
Gen. Ross G. Hoyt award.

Air Mobility Command officials announced in May that Capts. John Kratt,
aircraft commander; Jon Fischbach, co-pilot; and Paul Alfonso Jr., third
pilot; Staff Sgt. Michael Murray II, instructor boom operator; and
Airman 1st Class Daniel Regester, boom operator, will receive the award
during the annual AFA convention in Washington, D.C., Sept. 16. All five
were members of the 911th Air Refueling Squadron at the time.

The incident that led to the award occurred at Incirlik Air Base,
Turkey, in 1997, where the crew of Mazda 85 was flying air refueling
support for coalition fighters supporting the United Nations Security
Council-imposed "no-fly zone" over northern Iraq. They had just
completed a sortie and were making the first of several "touch-and-go"
approaches, when strong, variable winds forced the aircraft's pilot to
power up early and "go around." Despite taking this action, the jet
still reacted in an "unusually firm manner," according to crew's award
nomination package.

Mazda 85's crew wasn't aware of the damage at first. Regester, the
crew's boom operator, said a gear indicator provided first warning. When
the gear was retracted, the right main landing gear indicator read "in
transit," rather than "up and locked." The aircraft's commander then
lowered the landing gear and got "down and locked" indications for all
three landing gear. Regester was then sent back to confirm which
indication was correct.

"Looking out, I saw the landing gear wasn't seated in the housing
(instead) it was bumping against the gear doors, which were stopping it
from actually going up into the wheel well properly. I could see it was
hanging freely and swaying back and forth in the slipstream," he said.

According to the award narrative, during the touch and go "the inner
sleeve of the strut had completely separated from the outer strut
leaving the gear truck hanging tenuously by a single scissor joint."

Regester compared his initial reaction to what parents experience when
they see their child fall down. "You know that feeling you get when your
son (or daughter) falls down, that desperate feeling of 'what am I going
to do.' I felt that way for several seconds, since there was nothing I
could do to fix the problem."

While the crew couldn't physically repair the gear, they did have
technical support from several sources. When news of Mazda 85's
in-flight emergency reached Grand Forks Air Force Base, a crisis action
team was activated, and experienced aircrew and maintainers were brought
in to help. Boeing engineers in Wichita, Kan., were also consulted.

Boeing engineers' first reaction was disbelief, according to Regester.
"Our operations center (the detachment's commander and first sergeant)
called Boeing's engineers and told them what was going on. Their
response was, 'That can't happen.'"

After the confusion cleared, "they (Boeing engineers) started offering
their expertise on the matter and giving us instructions as to what we
needed to do to bring the aircraft down safely," he recalled.

The Boeing engineers also predicted what might happen if the right main
gear collapsed, according to the award's nomination package. "Boeing
technical representatives reviewed with the crew the only other serious
gear malfunctions the KC-135 fleet had sustained (in its 35-year
history) and the anticipated aircraft response to the loss of the main
gear upon touchdown. With the loss of the right main gear, the crew was
informed the aircraft would probably depart the runway surface while
skidding on its No. 3 and No. 4 engine cowlings."

Since the loose gear could be driven up into the wing's fuel tanks, the
crew "burned off" as much fuel as possible before landing to minimize
the risk. When they landed, the aircraft had about 10,000 pounds of
fuel. Normally, a KC-135's crew would land with about 20,000 pounds of
fuel onboard, according to Col. Frederick Roggero, 319th Operations
Group commander.

In preparing for the final landing, the crew made two approaches to test
the aircraft's handling and stability, and to give themselves an
opportunity to rehearse the landing gear failure checklist. Mazda 85's
crew was now ready to land.

Back at Grand Forks AFB, CAT members listened in silence to the crew's
final approach, along with the Boeing engineers in Witchita, according
to Roggero.

"Captain (John) Sweeney was giving the play-by-play over the phone from
the operations center in Turkey. Inside the CAT, and at Boeing, the
atmosphere was dead still. I'm certain I could hear the chaplain praying
a mile a minute, as we all were," Roggero said. Inside CAT, the
countdown continued. "The jet came within one mile, then 100 feet, then
touched down."

What happened next is captured in the award package narrative. "Flying a
flawless approach, Kratt gently set the aircraft down on the runway. Not
knowing whether the gear would support the weight of the aircraft or
shear away, he attempted to keep the weight off the right main landing
gear as long as possible. Miraculously, the right gear righted itself
(upon impact with the runway) and lined itself up correctly, allowing
the inner sleeve -- which had been completely separated -- to slide into
the outer strut. As the aircraft settled fully onto the right gear, it
provided a semi-stable gear platform for the remainder of the landing
roll-out. Bringing the aircraft to a full stop on the runway with less
than a thousand feet remaining, the crew quickly completed their
emergency ground egress plan and moved clear of the aircraft." No one
was seriously injured in the incident.

While CAT members listened to these events, back on the jet, Regester,
was too busy with the situation at hand to consider what might happen
after the jet landed. "I wasn't thinking about whether I was going to
live through this, I was just thinking about what I needed to do. I just
figured that whatever happens, happens, there's nothing I can do. I just
need to bear down and do what I need to do to come out with the most
favorable outcome."

Regester, who enlisted in March 1996, and arrived at Grand Forks in
November of that year, said two things come to mind about this incident.
"First, it was the luckiest day in my life, and I don't plan to ever
have to go through another incident like that again. Second, the way I
figure it, something like this happens to a crew member once in their
career, so I'm glad to get mine out of the way early." (Courtesy AMC
News Service)