Airmen of Air Force Reserve Command’s 916th Air Refueling Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., got one of their KC-135 tankers off the ground in less than an hour after receiving a 7 a.m. call for help from an active duty NKC-135, reports Capt. Shannon Mann. The specially configured test 135 had lost vital flight instrumentation, leaving its crew flying almost blind. They did have a handheld GPS and got information from ground radar, but they needed the KC-135 aircrew and ground command post operators to talk them through a safe landing.
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…