Air traffic controller at Kirtland Air Force base credited with saving lives of Osprey crew
"She’s probably one of the few people here with the experience to recognize that something’s just not quite right."
By Paul Szoldra January 18, 2021
A controller working in an air traffic control tower in Albuquerque, New Mexico is being credited with saving the lives of six Air Force service members in a CV-22 Osprey that was nearly involved in a “catastrophic failure.â€
Wendy Smith was working in a tower serving both Kirtland Air Force Base and Albuquerque International Sunport on the evening of Nov. 10, 2020, when she noticed something amiss with the Osprey, according to an Air Force press release, and reported over the radio, “hey Dusty 73, your right prop-rotor looks weird.â€
According to Lt. Col. Brett Cassidy, the commander of the 71st Special Operations Squadron, the crew then looked out the window and saw the three tip lights on the prop-rotor were not fully aligned as they should be. “That was enough. They came back in, landed, got a new aircraft and went back out,†said Cassidy. “The maintenance team downloaded the information, and that blade was vibrating three times its limit.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/kirtland-air-base-controller-osprey-crew/
