Search for Survivors from USAF Bomber Crash
The United States Air Force was hopeful on July 22nd of finding surviving crew members from the B-52 bomber crash that occurred the previous day, but, according to one official, there was no evidence to support these hopes.
As Armed Forces International reported in Breaking News coverage yesterday morning, the USAF B-52 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, with six crew members on board.
To date, two bodies have been recovered from the scene, with no information yet given concerning their identities.
Both of these crew members had life jackets on.
Lieutenant John Titchen, a spokesman for the US Coast Guard, described the state of the rescue operation so far.
"We've seen fuel in the water, oil slicks, some pieces of what look like a plane”, he said.
“This is right within the area where we had planned our searches.
“We are now planning our searches to include wind and water current, any kind of drift that may happen to someone in the water."
B-52 Over Guam
The B-52 had been positioning itself for a flight over Guam - in connection with the island’s Liberation Day event – when the incident occurred.
As these words were written, the search operation was still underway, and was involving elements of the US military as well as civilian participants.
Pacific Search Operation
According to Titchen, the assets taking part included three vessels (including one warship), a pair of US military F-15 combat jets, three helicopters and a United States Navy Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. Together, they were covering a Pacific stretch approximately 3,000 square miles in size.
"We've basically saturated that area", Titchen said, adding: "We're optimistic our search area is concentrated on the right area right now."
"This is a challenging operation when we lose people we work with on a day-to-day basis, so we're doing the best that we can to cover that area as quickly as we can.”
USAF Bombers in Pacific
The B-52 involved in the crash hailed from Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base, but was on deployment to Guam – its temporary detachment there forming part of a US military rotational policy providing an ongoing strategic bomber presence in the Pacific area.
According to Air Combat Command spokeswoman Master Sergeant Cindy Dorfner, from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, the last crash in which a B-52 featured occurred 14 years ago.
On that occasion, the aircraft was rehearsing for an upcoming airshow, and came down while carrying ‘touch-and-go’ landings.
The USAF is set to carry out an investigation into yesterday’s crash.
Source – Armed Forces International’s US Correspondent
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