According to Air Force Reserve Command officials, the wings-level landing managed by the air crew of the C-5 that crashed Monday morning just short of a Dover AFB, Del., runway, saved the lives of all on board. Col Udo McGregor, commander of the 439th Operations Group at Westover ARB, Mass., said, “The survivors are survivors because [the pilot] put it on the ground wings level.” McGregor, who is a veteran pilot with more than 10,600 flying hours—7,000 in C-5s—added that the type of emergency the crew faced is one for which they have trained “hundreds of times in a simulator.” (Here is a list of survivors and a short history of the C-5.)
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…