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Airlifters, maintainers respond to SWA 'microburst' storm, damaged C-130s

  • Published
  • By Roger Drinnon
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Sudden "microburst" winds damaging 14 C-130 aircraft assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing prompted a rapid response from Air Mobility Command agencies and the wing's maintainers, April 24.

AMC's Logistics Directorate and the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center coordinated a rush delivery of 21 parts from eight stateside bases to the 386th AEW in Southwest Asia while also flying sorties to cover 386th AEW's airlift mission.

"The sky turned brown from all the sand in the air, and for about 1-2 minutes everything was being pelted with rocks and sand," said Senior Master Sgt. Greg House, 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron line chief. "Shortly after the winds subsided, maintenance personnel began to assess the aircraft for damage while continuing to support (mission requirements) with our (undamaged) aircraft."

Microbursts, a subcategory of weather phenomena known as downbursts, are extreme, downward winds resulting from a severe storm. Meteorologists classify downbursts as microbursts if they cover an area less than 2.5 miles in diameter.

"The odd thing was the damaging winds only seemed to hit the main (aircraft) parking area," said Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Ivins, maintenance superintendent. "Very little damage was found on the rest of the base," he continued. "We had one aircraft in the middle of a maintenance engine run that took a lot of sand and gravel - the engine run crew had to shut down and evacuate the line because of the winds and lightning."

Chief Ivins said, fortunately, no personnel were injured from the storm.

Aircraft maintainers immediately determined recovery procedures and the parts needed to expedite repairs as quickly as possible.

"The full damage assessment left us with 56 engines filled with sand and rocks, 25 aircraft windows shattered and 14 damaged sensors," said Capt. Michael Eudy, maintenance operations officer. "We developed a reverse-engine flush procedure that was approved by engineering at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and began washing out debris in the compressors and turbines," he said.

Capt. Eudy said maintenance and supply personnel determined eight replacement aircraft windows were stocked on base, but 17 windows and six sensors needed to be requested through supply channels. Most of the parts needed to be airlifted from stateside with coordination from key agencies within AMC.

"Kudos go out to the processes in place and those Airmen who exercise those processes daily to make a catastrophic event such as this look like a routine support venture," said Col. Richard Marks, deputy chief of maintenance for AMC's Logistics Directorate. "This is a true testament of the Mobility Air Force's reach-back support capability and goes to show that the logistics enterprise team members are superb at supporting our critical warfighting mission."

The colonel said support provided by the 618th TACC was essential to the successful delivery of the parts.

"After coordinating with TACC leadership, AMC's Logistics Directorate and CENTAF's Air Mobility Division, our Logistics Readiness Division energized efforts with the Mobility Air Forces Logistics Support Center to deliver the parts via a combination of (commercial) and organic flights for delivery up to 96 hours ahead of schedule," said Rich Richardson, 618th TACC senior director of operations. "The TACC floor and especially the Theater Direct Delivery Cell, Battle Staff Directors, and the Logistics Readiness Division did an outstanding job in mitigating the affects of the temporary loss of these aircraft, making this transparent to the warfighter," he added.

The 618th TACC also ensured the 386th AEW's airlift mission continued as the C-130s were repaired.

"The mobility family surged to cover the missions the C-130s were not able to perform," said Mr. Richardson. "AMC's dwelling theater C-17s (theater direct delivery) were augmented by a plus-up of C-17s and C-5s," he continued. "As a result, we broke a 6-month record by flying the highest number of theater direct delivery sorties in a 24-hour period."

Mr. Richardson said the 618th TACC flew a considerable number of intra-theater airlift missions, each consisting of two or more sorties, as the maintainers worked to restore the C-130s to mission-capable status.

"Over the last week, TACC flew 18 additional C-17 intra-theater missions and three C-5 missions," he said. "This extra airlift translated to the capability of moving up to 432 more (cargo) pallets in the theater, or the equivalent of 72 C-130 missions."

"The response from AMC was exceptional - within 84 hours, our aircraft parts were on- hand," said Capt. Eudy. "They brought parts together from all over the U.S. map and coordinated flights to our location. That effort allowed us to start replacing windows much earlier than anticipated."

The captain also praised the 386th EAMS team members who worked tirelessly to restore the aircraft to mission-capable status within a few days of the storm.

"The effort of our maintenance team was astonishing." said Capt. Eudy. "They worked long hours under less than desirable conditions thinking 'outside the box' to restore the mission of our wing."