Danger In The Sky: In-Flight Emergency Grounds MacDill Reservists

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Shawn Rhodes
  • 927th Air Refueling Wing
Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii --  "We are declaring an in-flight emergency. Smoke and fumes in the cockpit," was the last thing Capt. Matt Sayers thought he would say, and one of his crew members running with a little boy in his arms as they evacuated his airplane was the last thing he thought he would see, when he woke up that morning. He was co-piloting a KC-135 Stratotanker for the 927th Air Refueling Wing on Dec. 19 when he and his crew made the decision to declare an emergency in the sky.

"Something went wrong with the pressurization system," said Captain Sayers. "Right after we pressurized, members of my crew heard a loud BOOM on the aircraft." That was something no one aboard the plane wanted to hear at 22,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.

The Caro, Mich. native has flown for the Air Force for six years and repairing their planes for nine years prior to that. Thanks to the training they receive, Captain Sayers and his crew acted fast - there was no telling where the fumes were coming from or if they were poisonous to everyone on board.

"After we declared an emergency, (the control tower) cleared the airspace around us and gave us a holding pattern while they cleared the runway and prepare the emergency vehicles," Captain Sayers said. He added that because the tower doesn't know whether an emergency will impair the pilots' ability to control the aircraft's landing, they gave the captain's KC-135 carte blanche on the runway.

Emergency personnel loaded into their vehicles and waited to see the lights of the aircraft through the fog that hung over the island. If they never saw the lights of the tanker aircraft, it would mean another crew of emergency personnel - the kind that deal with crash recovery on the ocean - would be summoned. While the aircraft tower and emergency crews on the ground anxiously awaited further word from the plane, the pilots and crew were dealing with another kind of emergency; how to keep their crew and 10 civilian passengers safe when the fumes they smelled could be poisonous.

"Anytime we smell smoke or fumes, we have everyone go on oxygen to be safe," Captain Sayers said. Tanker aircraft like the KC-135 use a different kind of oxygen-delivery system than civilian jets. Instead of a face mask that drops from the ceiling, a self-contained bag with an oxygen canister knows as an Emergency Passenger Oxygen System or EPOS is used. These bags, or larger oxygen canisters and face masks, are always kept within arms' reach by the crew and passengers. When the pilots and crew noticed the smoke and fumes, word was passed over the plane's radio to put the bags on. While the military members on board had training on how to use the bags and follow orders in stressful situations, the civilians aboard the aircraft - all travelling for the holidays - had little to no experience with the oxygen systems.

"After the order was passed, I got my mask on and went around checking everyone to make sure they had their masks on," said Tech. Sgt. Brandon Rusk, a hydraulic technician with the unit and a native of Liliha, Hawaii. While many of the crew members are experts at aerial refueling or caring for wounded patients in mid-air, Rusk was aboard to troubleshoot any hydraulic problems when the aircraft was on the runway. Because he knew he could be more help to the passengers than to the mechanical trouble in mid-air, he quickly moved to assist the passengers with getting their oxygen bags on and making sure the oxygen was flowing.

"It's easier to know how to use the (E-Pods) when you've had to do it before. This is the second time I've had to use these in flight," Sergeant Rusk said with a smile.

One of the civilian passengers was a young boy travelling with his family.

Understandably, the young boy was afraid as his parents put the oxygen bags on their heads and worked to don his. Sergeant Rusk and other crew members were quick to ensure the bag was properly donned and that the boy had a good flow of oxygen from the small canister on the bag.

While the crew was handling the passengers in the rear of the aircraft, the pilots were dealing with turning around over the Pacific Ocean and landing an aircraft full of thousands of pounds of fuel.

"We couldn't land with all the fuel we had on board," said Captain Sayers. He added that the plane was scheduled to fly across the Pacific Ocean and the entire continental United States without needing to refuel, so it was literally too heavy for the landing gear to support its weight when touching down on the runway. "We dumped 25,000 pounds of fuel over the ocean to get light enough to land."

Captain Sayers explained that at 22,000 feet, the fuel atomizes in the atmosphere before it hits the ground. This procedure ensures the fuel will not negatively impact the environment. Once the fuel was gone, they concentrated on getting back to the runway as quickly and safely as possible.

"In airspace as busy as that one, the radio gets really busy in an emergency" Captain Sayers said. He added that a lot of people need to know information to coordinate emergency crews. With the pilots busy taking care of passing information to the crew, it leaves little time to communicate with folks on the ground.

"We had a lot of help in the cockpit. There were two instructor pilots aboard who quickly came to the front and ran checklists for us and helped pass information over the radios," Captain Sayers said.

Fortunately for the 34 souls on board, the problem was not severe enough to affect the plane's ability to safely land. With the in-flight emergency terminated and the plane touching down back in Hawaii, the crew and passengers were anxious to exit the aircraft and get to safety - the smoke and fumes could be the precursor to another emergency. When the main door of the aircraft opened, the crew smelled the fumes again. Without knowing what the cause of the smoke and fumes were, their first priority was to get the civilian passengers off the aircraft.

The order was quickly passed through the military passengers to evacuate the civilians aboard first. As one row of civilians rushed through the center aisle of seats to de-board, the other side was slower to move because of the small boy at the head of their line. Master Sgt. John Mercer, a boom operator with the crew and Tampa, Fla. native, picked the small boy up in his arms and led the remaining civilians off of the aircraft.

"As the boom operator, I'm supposed to be the last one off the plane," said Sergeant Mercer. "I got word that we were supposed to get the (civilians) off the plane, so I was all about grabbing the kid and going."

Once the civilians were safely off, the military passengers and crew exited safely.
Later, it was discovered that the pressurization system aboard the decades-old tanker had malfunctioned and been the cause of the smoke and fumes.

"Normally, the system allows pressure from inside the aircraft to go out, but now it won't hold any back," explained Sergeant Rusk.

Captain Sayers added "The environmental system is supposed to be able to provide us with clean air, but it is known to sometimes break."

At the end of the evening, all the crew and passengers were off the plane and the tanker was in the base's queue for repair.

All were fortunate that they were minutes from takeoff - it ensured their speedy return to the ground, and fortunate that were in the care of a highly trained crew of pilots and crew members - their performance under pressure ensured everyone returned safely.