24 May 2006
Got this from a reader. Can’t vouch for its authenticity or commend its quality, but looks like it could be legit:
MO noted the Diego Garcia belly landing incident last week.
UPDATE: A reader sent in a higher-res version of the pic, so I put it up in place of the original. Click for better look.
May 24th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Well, with the greenery on the side of the South/West side of the runway, it certainly looks like Diego Garcia… although it would be surprisingly close to the initial touchdown point if they followed the usual approach from the West…
May 24th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Yea I wonder how much skin and frame you can bend on one of these things before the insurance company calls it ‘totalled’. I sure hope they had ‘classic plane’ coverage on the policy. Ah the govt does insure these things don’t they? Just think of the war stories the ‘battle buddies’ who crewed that thing will have to share about how George Bush personally called them up and told them to do that.
May 24th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
BWJones, How can you tell that’s the beginning of the runway and not the end?
May 24th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
The greenery is only that close on the runway on the western end. I could be wrong, but the position of the camera appears to be from the north – thus the B1 landed east to west.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
It does not look banged up enough for a belly landing, seems to be sitting too straight on the runway too. What is the stall speed for this plane? Must be above 120 knots. At least the pilots have migrated from junior class to senior class – junior = pilots who have not done a belly landing, senior = pilots who have
May 25th, 2006 at 10:02 am
It breaks my heart to see that.
May 27th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
It belly landed because they didnt know the gear was up…!!! Not becaise of malfunctions or stalling…!!! Sounds silly but sadlly thats what happen…!!!Thats whay it is so straight!!! Dont ask me how i know this !!!
June 6th, 2006 at 7:54 am
What Bob is saying is 100% true…that picture is nothing but FOD on the runway.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:54 am
The greenary is that close on either end of the runway! Anyway it breaks my heart to see it like that too, but if anyone would do it it would have to be the sq that did!! And dont worry everyone.. the AF will try and fix it!
July 4th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
If you look closly at the bottem of the aircraft you can see the crew ladder. They tried to exit out of the bottem after they landed. During debrief the claimed that all 4 hydro systems failed just prior to landing (I have a better chance of winning the lottory… twice, in a row) It had to have been pilot error, because if the landing gear lights had not come on then they would have done a fly bye to make sure that they where down.