Posted on 04/28/2015 8:02:42 PM PDT by logi_cal869
A US Air Force refuelling aircraft disappeared off the radar over the English Channel last night.
The Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker left Amiens in northern France at 0.05am local time (11.05pm BST) and was last reported on a flight tracking website between Dover and Calais 15 minutes later.
It is not yet known why the plane - flying under the code QID72 and based at Mildenhall in Suffolk - fell off the radar at 0.20am. The US Air Force was unavailable for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Oh wow. Glad it landed safely.
Great news.
Perhaps the mystery around the ‘in-flight emergency’ will be resolved...
Sounds like electrical issues.
The version of the brief story I saw last night didn't state anything about 'strange transponder readings'.
Explain, please.
The plane was already on the ground when that happened.
Then again it does look similar enough to that B-17 that was pretty much cut in half after being rammed by a Bf-109 that maybe it could have landed. Boeing products are pretty tough like that.
I cannot explain, please, because the Daily Mail has updated the story and removed the original article. But when I first read the story they explained that there were several transponder readings about altitude and airspeed, and one of the readings was 22,000 feet and zero airspeed.
Oops, my error. What I read was post #47 above that had the transponder readings.
As you can see from XHogPilot’s list of transponder readings, one says “On this particular site, the tracking of QID72, KC-135 tail number 61-0321 begins 22:05UTC over France, at cruise altitude 33,600 ft, speed 0kts, heading 328degrees.”
Great news!
I flew as a passenger on the KC-135’s out of RAF Mildenhall many a time in the mid-90’s.
One time, on a run from Ramstein AB to Mildenhall, we were diverted to a refuel mission over the Adriatic (during the Bosnia-Herzegovina troubles)... We 4 passengers had one Snickers between us, and were airborne about 12 hours for a 1 hour flight. My feet were cold frozen due to the altitude, and my head was sweltering due to the constant forced hot air above! At least I got to watch a copule of refules back with the boom guy.
Was never so glad to get to Mildenhall! Went to the Smokehouse for dinner; ate like a hog, then the Bird-in-Hand for after dinner refreshments. Then slept until noon!
OUCH... $40 million per in 1998
Wiki:
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
Aerial refueling
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is a military aerial refueling aircraft. It and the Boeing 707 airliner were developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype. Wikipedia
Wingspan: 131’ (40 m)
Length: 136’ (42 m)
Range: 5,000 miles (8,047 km)
Cruise speed: 552 mph (888 km/h)
Weight: 98,470 lbs (44,660 kg)
Unit cost: 39,600,000–39,600,000 USD (1998)
Engine type: CFM International CFM56
Thanks for the update. it’s only been forty six years since I worked on them.
No. All KCs are tankers. RC-135s were the recon birds.
We use Flight Explorer at work. It is notoriously unreliable. It will show aircraft at FL150 when ACARS shows an “on” time. Other times tagged aircraft just don’t appear. I have found flight aware to be more reliable..
Have you ever tried Flight Aware?
Yes, I have. I found it to be more reliable than Flight Explorer..
FlightAware.com is what I use at home to back-check events on my flights. It’s amazingly accurate, even in the terminal area.
I was unable to figure out how to use it to track US military and other non-airline types. Is it possible?
They do not use the same transponders. For some reason, the USAF doesn’t want everyone knowing where their planes are. Ha ha.
I think it depends on the squawk code. You can’t see AF-1 on there, because of the discreet code, and I think flight aware only uses the “published” ones..
Back in the day...a top secret jet would drop in behind the tanker and it would refuse to acknowledge proximity warnings from civilian ground control. I can see that now they’d probably drop below radar to top off the visitor.
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