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Crash course in crash recovery

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tara A. Williamson
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  With more than 180 sorties flown out of Kadena every week, it's no surprise that not every one is going to be smooth.

That's why Kadena's 18th Equipment Maintenance Squadron has crash recovery units, North and South, to respond for heavy aircraft and fighter jets, respectively.

"We respond to all in-flight emergencies and ground emergencies for fighters," said Staff Sgt. John Brush, 18th EMS crash recovery South craftsman.

Though they specialize on fighter jets, South members have been trained to assist with North aircraft, and vice versa.

"If it's a heavy jet [North side] responds and we'll assist them; we'll work together," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Rodriguez, 18th EMS crash recovery South assistant section chief. "They're the experts on C-130s, KC-135s [for example]; we're experts on fighters, F-18s [and so on]. If it wasn't for that we'd work with them, but like I said, we get trained on all the jets so we know the danger areas."

South side has responded to 70 IFEs and 15 GEs so far in 2011 with no major crashes in the last few years.

"A lot of people don't understand crash recovery," Rodriguez said. "As long as they know when they see the guys out there something bad happened. It's a good thing when they won't see us. If they don't ever see or hear of us, it's a good thing."

The difference in tempo between Kadena and other bases is unique, as well. It is not home to worldwide exercises like a few others, meaning there aren't as many crashes with the sheer number of aircraft flying. However, Kadena is home to the sister services, which means there are more IFEs and GEs to respond to than other bases.

Another obstacle Kadena is working with every day is having only one active runway because the other is under construction. Normally, instead of diverting, a pilot can say, "I'll just land on the other runway," Brush said, but with only one active runway they have to keep it cleaned up so aircraft don't have to divert.

It's a big responsibility knowing the runway is not clear until the team clears it so the jets don't have to divert or are circling around waiting to land, Brush said. "We just did that last week. We had to pull off the runway; had to put a crash tire on it just to get it off."

"It was done in about 20 minutes," Rodriguez said. "The jet landed and blew a tire. [Our] guys went out there and they had about 30 minutes before, I think four or five jets had to divert to [Marine Corps Air Station] Futenma. The tower was asking 'can you get this jet off in 30 minutes?' I said, 'I'll call you back, I'll find out.' We're out there, I think we had two minutes left, we towed the jet off with two minutes and [the jets] were able to land here."

Clearing the runway is only half of the job for the crash recovery South unit. They also do the work on F-15 riggings such as struts, canopies, horizontal stabs and rigging all flight controls.

"They have to rig it all verbatim," Rodriguez said "If you need to get a measuring stick, you do that. There's a reason why. At my last base, flew off, one unhinged back and someone messed up. I [tell] them, here, if you do something wrong someone's going to notice and something bad is going to happen. Anything those guys do, it's going to be visible if they don't do it right."

Crash recovery is dependent on the situation. Whatever the situation is, the unit has to devise a plan right then and there to get it the situation solved.

"People say the cool thing is to pick up jets," Rodriguez said. "It's cool that it doesn't happen, we're always prepared. These guys are always in a state of readiness, that's the only good thing about it. It's good that things don't happen, but it's good that we're always prepared; we're ready for it."

For the members of crash recovery, they feel it's better to be prepared for what they hope will never happen.