An A-10 that made an emergency landing at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq prompted U.S. Marines and the Warthog’s maintainers to scramble to secure the plane and improvise enough fixes to get it airborne and away from any threat.
On Thursday, in a statement first reported by the Hill newspaper, the Air Force revealed that one of its A-10s flying missions against the Islamic State over Iraq and Syria was forced to land due to engine failure.
The A-10, which is assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group, landed safely at the sprawling Al-Asad Iraqi airbase, which is being used by U.S. military to train Iraqi security forces. The Air Force said repairing the aircraft took five days, but did not provide the specifics on when it made the emergency landing.
The engine failure that forced an A-10 to land at Al-Asad was not due to enemy fire, U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Pat Ryder said Friday.
But the emergency landing raised the question of whether the Air Force has sufficient support close enough to its daily airstrikes over Iraq and Syria. In an Air Force news release announcing the emergency landing Thursday, the service noted the fast thinking by a group of U.S. Marines and members of the 332nd’s maintenance crew, who were quickly flown in to work on the plane when they found that the conditions of the Iraqi hangar shielding the Warthog were less than ideal.
“There is absolutely no aircraft maintenance equipment, air ground equipment or any way to tow fighter aircraft. We had to bring everything we needed and improvise everything else. We worked on the jet in an unused aircraft shelter the Iraqi air force used once upon a time. It had no lights, no power, no phone and no Internet…just a roof over our heads,” Chief Master Sgt. Richard Stroh, lead of the 332nd’s expeditionary maintenance squadron.
It was critical to get the A-10 secured and removed so as not to present a target for the Islamic State’s continuing pop-up attacks in the region.
“We needed it repaired and flown out of there as quickly as possible,” the 332nd’s commander, Col. Michael Strohler said in an Air Force news release.
The pilot was also safely airlifted from the base.
“My understanding is that the aircraft landed safely — there were no incidents or any type of enemy fire — they were able to get the parts for it,” Ryder said. “I don’t have a present status for it.”
