93rd Bomb Squadron Crew receives 8th Air Force Safety Award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Ebony Nichols
  • 917 Wing Public Affairs
Barksdale AFB, La --  A 93rd Bomb Squadron and 20th Bomb Squadron combined crew recently displayed skill and ingenuity in handling an exceptionally difficult and unusual situation. The actions of the aircrew prevented and reduced injury to people, aircraft damage, other property and loss of life; which fittingly landed them with an award for their valorous efforts.
 
Capt. Timothy "Skid" Albrecht, deputy aircraft commander; 1st Lt. Andrew "Tucker" Marshall, radar navigator; Capt. Dustin "Sarcastro" Brothers, instructor electronic warfare officer, and Maj. Chris "Chico" Anderson, instructor radar navigator, all 93 BS members, received the 8th Air Force Aircrew Safety Award of Distinction, for safely landing a damaged aircraft in inclement weather. 

During the air refueling portion of a 13-hour sortie, the crew experienced a master caution associated with an engine oil over heat light. Aircraft Commander, Capt. Jason "Pusher" Grubaugh backed the jet out to 100 feet behind the tanker while trying to maintain the formation. Capt. Albrecht observed the number four engine oil reading at 150 degrees and rising rapidly. 

In a matter of minutes, the temperature had risen to 180 degrees. At this point, the aircrew shut down the engine. This sequence of events pushed many thoughts and questions through the crew members' minds. 

"Is the aircrew safe? Can we recover? What is our next action? Where are we going? Are we still on track and/or do we need to deviate? With whom do we need to communicate," wondered Maj. Anderson. 

These questions led to the actions the crew members took. 

"We knew we had to ensure that (we) had the airplane under control, and needed to accomplish (our) boldface actions," said Maj. Anderson. Boldface actions are chronological steps aircrew members perform in result of an emergency situation.
 
After running the boldface and increasing the throttle to provide cooling to the engine, the boom operator informed the crew of black smoke coming from the number four engine. The pilots ran the boldface again, terminated the sortie and followed the tanker to the forward operating location. As a result of the engine remaining shut down, more checklists had to be run to work around the loss of other systems that are directly tied to that engine. 

The most significant problem was the crew being left with only three brakes. Using the skills taught in training for these types of emergencies, the crew calculated landing data for three brakes and came up with a plan to burn down fuel to reach desired weight. 

This computed out to a total ground run of 11,000 feet, which happens to be the length of the runway. And if the engine shut down was not enough, rain showers built up over the FOL. The wet runway drastically increased total ground run required versus the runway length. There was an alternate runway available, but it was wet also; therefore, providing no benefit to the crew members. 

The emergency training the pilots received served them well, as the plans continued to change. With the runway wet, the crew decided to land short of the normal touchdown zone to ensure they remained on the prepared surface. With the weather deteriorating, they expedited their fuel burn to take advantage of remaining daylight. Because of their quick thinking, ability to remain calm under pressure, and utilization of the training from previous experiences, the crew of RAIDR12 landed successfully and was able to preserve an $84 million resource.