A KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 100th Air Refueling Wing was forced to land early Wednesday morning at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, after a flight control malfunctioned, said Senior Airman Victoria Taylor, a spokeswoman for the wing.

None of the three crew members and three passengers aboard was injured, Taylor told Air Force Times on Wednesday.

"The crew and aircraft were never in jeopardy and they safely returned to home station" at Mildenhall, Taylor said in an email. "We continuously train to high standards and have established flight manual procedures in place to deal with emergencies of this nature."

Published reports said the aircraft briefly disappeared from radar.

But Taylor said the tanker's crew kept in touch with air traffic control after they declared an in-flight emergency at 12:20 a.m. local time, roughly three hours after the plane departed Naval Air Station Souda Bay, Greece enroute to RAF Mildenhall. The flight, with the call sign QID 72, was preparing for air refueling when the emergency occurred.

"QID 72 subsequently requested an amended flight path routing with 'London Control' for landing at Mildenhall in lieu of air refueling," she said. "The aircraft continued to maintain contact with all appropriate aircraft control centers during the flight. At no time was the aircrew notified of a loss of radio or radar contact from any of the assigned air traffic controllers."

Taylor did not specify which flight control malfunctioned, prompting the emergency.

After decades of deferred modernization, the planes of the Air Force are the oldest since the service became independent in 1947 -- and tankers are among the oldest of the old.

After decades of deferred modernization, the planes in the Air Force are the oldest since the service became independent in 1947 – and tankers are among the oldest of the old.

​The average age of Air Force tankers is 52 years, Lt. Gen. Stephen Hoog, assistant vice chief of staff, said Wednesday at an Air Force Association event.

"If we had kept the World War II B-17 bomber and flown it in Desert Storm in 1991, it would have been younger than the B-52, the KC-135 and the U-2 are today," Hoog said.

Share:
In Other News
Load More