According to Air Force Reserve Command officials, the wings-level landing managed by the air crew of the C-5 that crashed Monday morning just short of a Dover AFB, Del., runway, saved the lives of all on board. Col Udo McGregor, commander of the 439th Operations Group at Westover ARB, Mass., said, “The survivors are survivors because [the pilot] put it on the ground wings level.” McGregor, who is a veteran pilot with more than 10,600 flying hours—7,000 in C-5s—added that the type of emergency the crew faced is one for which they have trained “hundreds of times in a simulator.” (Here is a list of survivors and a short history of the C-5.)
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
