Pilot error led to AWACS crash at Nellis
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 11, 2010 19:12:57 EST
Pilot mistakes led to the $100 million crash landing of an E-3 AWACS on
Aug 29, an investigation conducted by 12th Air Force found.
The report, released Tuesday to Air Force Times, concluded that the E-3’s
pilot and co-pilot allowed the jet’s nose wheel to hit the runway at Nellis
AFB, NV, so hard that it broke the nose landing gear. The jet
skidded down the runway for 4500 feet before coming to a stop.
The command and control jet’s 32 crew members, most from the 552nd Air
Control Wing at Tinker AFB, OK, safely escaped from the plane with only
minor injuries.
There were no problems until the last moments of the landing approach
shortly after midnight, the report said.
Investigators believe that about 100 feet above the runway, in calm
weather, the pilots lost track of the plane’s altitude. The co-pilot, who was
handling the landing, put the aircraft into a steeper than normal approach.
With the jet 50 feet high, the pilot called for the co-pilot to bring
up the nose, but it was too late to prevent the hard landing.
The plane’s altimeter showed the plane’s correct altitude, but the night
landing could have made it difficult to look outside and judge the plane’s
height, the report said.
Neither pilot was an “experienced” E-3 pilot, but that is common for E-3
crews, the report said. The co-pilot, a first lieutenant, had logged only
132 hours in E-3s. The pilot, whose name and rank were not released, had 387
E-3 hours and 1819 hours overall in Air Force planes.
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