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B-1 makes wheels up landing at Diego Garcia
A B-1B Lancer made a wheels-up belly landing at Diego Garcia Monday, skidding down the runway for 7,500 feet, according to Air Force reports. The four-person aircrew escaped from the plane. The B-1B was home based with the 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.Any landing you can walk away from is a good one. The 20-year-old bomber was landing at Diego Garcia, a remote base in the Indian Ocean, at the end of a ferry mission that started at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The Air Force wont say why the crew landed the plane with its landing gear retracted. They drew the short straw. During the landing, the B-1B caught fire and emergency crews extinguished the flames. Because damage estimates are more than $1 million, separate Air Force accident and safety investigation boards will look for the cause of the accident. Under a million and they just ignore the whole thing? Production of the supersonic bombers ended in the mid-1980s. With inflation taken into account, today the planes would cost more than $283 million each. I saw one on e-bay for a lot less than that. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-05-10 |
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