Advanced Avionics To The Rescue

Flying Safety, July, 2001 by Wayde R. Minami

"I've bee over the bay for quite some time and I can't seem to find any land. I need some help."

What started as a routine flight training mission turned into a life-or-death rescue for a Maryland Air National Guard crew. Just before dusk on 17 January 2001, the crew of Witch 53, a C-130J of the 135th Airlift Group in Baltimore, monitored an urgent distress call from N6266A, a civilian aircraft near Atlantic City, NJ.

"I'm a student pilot over the Delaware Bay," came the broadcast from a single-engine Piper Tomahawk. "I've been over the bay for quite some time and I can't seem to find any land. I need some help."

A controller at the Atlantic City approach control center attempted to locate the Tomahawk on radar but came up empty. Calls to other radar stations in the area, including Dover AFB, DE, turned up nothing.

"It definitely piqued our interest," Maj. Kristi Brawley, the C-130 pilot, recalled. The Marylanders quickly offered their services.

A Bad Situation

With the lost pilot becoming more and more frantic, the air traffic controller finally located him. But the civilian Tomahawk wasn't over the Delaware Bay. He was over the Atlantic Ocean-- 60 miles out to sea and heading east. Worse, he was running low on fuel.

"He was in deep trouble," Maj Brawley said. "He was a student pilot with little training out over the open water and it got worse because...he wasn't responding properly to the air traffic controller's directions."

Lt Col Tom Hans, in the right seat of the C-130, said "I could tell, with the frustration in the controller's voice and the desperation in the student's voice, it was a bad situation."

With the sun setting and the wayward Tomahawk fading in and out of contact with ground radar, the Maryland crew rushed to intercept. At a range of 17 miles, the J-model's sophisticated avionics began picking up the lost aircraft's transponder and, as the distance closed, was able to paint the tiny plane using air-to-air radar as well.

"The avionics are the reason we found him," Brawley said, crediting the improved radar and Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System aboard the C-130J with enabling them to fly directly to the lost aircraft. Without the improved avionics, the crew would have been forced to fly a time-consuming grid search pattern--time the civilian pilot didn't have.

When the Maryland crew intercepted the wayward civilian plane, they used their aircraft as a visual reference to get the Tomahawk on a heading back towards land.

"Confirm Souls on Board"

But it wasn't over yet. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the civilian pilot discovered that his interior lighting didn't work. He had no flashlight, and it became increasingly difficult to see his instruments. When the horizon disappeared into the darkness, the C130J became his only visual reference--and his only hope.

"That was the most discouraging moment," Brawley said, "because we weren't sure he'd be able to land without his instrument lights. The whole JFK thing kept popping into my head: 'Will he be able to maintain control of the airplane?'" (The speculation is that John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s fatal plane crash was the result of his becoming a victim of spatial disorientation. Ed.)

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard launched a rescue helicopter, and the Atlantic City controller made an ominous call: "6266A, confirm souls on board."

The C-130 crew realized what this meant--it wasn't certain the Tomahawk could make it safely to an airport. If the pilot went down in the Atlantic Ocean's frigid January waters, it was virtually certain the rescue helicopter would be looking for bodies.

At this point the Marylanders were no more optimistic than the air traffic controller about the Tomahawk's chances. "We thought he'd be swimming," Brawley said. "We just didn't know how much range he had left."

But then, without warning, the airplane's instrument lights came on, and the Herk guided it back to "feet dry." They rendezvoused with the Coast Guard helicopter, which escorted the Tomahawk to a safe landing at Atlantic City International Airport.

Fortunate Timing

The timing of the incident was fortuitous for the lost civilian. The 135th only began flying the advanced C-130J last year. Until 2000, the unit was equipped with Vietnam-era C-130Es, which lacked the sophisticated avionics that enabled the crew to quickly locate the tiny Tomahawk despite extremely poor visibility.

When the Tomahawk landed, it had three gallons of fuel in one tank. The other tank was empty. Without the quick, decisive action of the Maryland crew, and the state-of-the-art electronics aboard their aircraft, the Tomahawk would have run out of fuel over the ocean or before reaching Atlantic City.

Lt Col Hans said, "What I think is really amazing about this is we've never been trained as aircrew members to do anything like this--we didn't even have any plan when we went out to get him--but everybody came together as a team, and we brought him back safely."

For their prompt, decisive action during the incident, Lt Col Tom Hans, Maj Kristi Brawley, Maj David Deborger, MSgt Jimmy Greaves, and TSgt John Britt were awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal.