A US Air Force (USAF) A-10C Thunderbolt II pilot was honored last Wednesday (05) for performing an emergency landing after a catastrophic failure in the cannon of the attack jet ripped off the canopy and several s of the plane and even locked the landing gear.
On April 07, 2020, Captain Taylor Bye of the 75th Fighter Squadron (75th FS) at Moody Air Force Base (Georgia) while attempting to fire the GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon in a field training of Grand Bay, faced a failure that resulted in the detachment of the canopy and several s of the plane's fuselage.
Even with several problems, the pilot was able to perform a belly landing, with minimal damage to the runway and the aircraft itself. For her successful actions over the past year, she was awarded the Air Combat Command Airmanship award last week.
“My initial reaction was to climb away from the ground and then look at my engines. The amazing thing about the A-10 is that even though all these things happened, I had two engines and hydraulics working perfectly.” says the soldier who is also head of standardization and evaluation at the hunting unit.
That day, Bye was the flight leader accompanied by her wingman, Maj. Jack Ingber. The USAF explains that all single-person fighter jets fly in pairs of two or four for mutual .
"I slowed the aircraft down and that's when (Ingber) looked at my jet," said the Captain. “The trust in this community and in the Air Force in general, but specifically in this fighter squadron, is enormous because I am fully relying on him to let me know what is going on so that I can take appropriate action and bring him [the plane] ] back on the ground safely.”
During that time, Ingber followed proper procedure for conveying critical information to Bye.
“When you are in that environment, it becomes very robotic”, said Ingber, pilot of the 75th FS and assistant director of operations. “When something (unusual) happens, it is apparent and very easy to identify and fix. It's my main job to think about everything that (Bye) isn't thinking about because she has a huge plane that is falling apart."
In addition to providing information, Ingber was able to help assess the situation and take appropriate action. He returned closely following Bye's damaged jet, watching the aircraft and monitoring the surrounding airspace.
“At that point, our director of operations had taken off and helped escort me along,” Bye said. “He was able to escort me further down so he could help me further with my approach.”
With the wind blowing in his face at 563 km/h (350 miles per hour), Bye had to lower his seat which made it difficult to see the track.
“I thought, 'where's the ground, where's the ground' … I was holding my breath at that point,” said the military. “I think I was nervous the whole time, but I didn't have time to think about being nervous. My job was to take care of myself and take care of the jet.”
Even with all the problems and adversities, the Captain managed to land the plane safely with minimal damage to the runway.
“The most important thing is to prevent the total loss of the A-10 or, even worse, its life,” said Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Joca, commander of the 75th FS. "This is what most of us on the ground monitoring the situation were thinking, given the rarity of an event like this and the extent of the damage."
Second Business Insider, a very similar incident occurred in 2017. When Major Brett DeVries, pilot of the 107th Fighter Squadron, attempted to fire the jet's gatling cannon, an explosion ripped off the canopy, s, and damaged the attack plane's landing gear.
He managed to land the A-10 on its belly with minimal damage to the jet's base infrastructure, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross on November 06, 2020, months after the incident with Captain Bye.
With DVIDS.
