Crewchiefs suppress fire, ensure safety of flight crew

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Allison M. Boehm
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La --  For three Barksdale crewchiefs, work was going to be just another routine day-to-day operation. A B-52H was going to land; they were going to taxi the aircraft in and perform an engine running crew change before the jet took off for a second sortie.

However, as the jet approached the south hammerhead, Master Sgt. Patrick Bailey, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron production superintendent, noticed smoke coming from one of the landing gear.

"We began to respond thinking it was a hot brake (also a ground emergency)," Sergeant Bailey said. "As we got closer, I noticed the flames."

It was in fact a fire. Immediately, the crewchiefs notified the Maintenance Operations Center of the situation and requested fire department personnel, but due to the location of the aircraft, would be a few minutes before the firefighters could arrive and there was no time to wait.

The crewchiefs got in position. Tech. Sgt. Juan Robles, 2 AMXS crewchief, sprang into action, using standard marshalling signals to notify the aircrew of the fire and the urgent need for them to egress the aircraft.

Senior Airman Eduardo Negron, 2 AMXS crewchief, retrieved and positioned a 150-pound Halon fire extinguisher to begin fire-fighting procedures. Sergeant Robles and Airman Negron began to fight the fire and provided a safety zone for the evacuating crew.

As the crewchiefs fought to contain the fire, Sergeant Bailey recognized the inability of the first fire-bottle to extinguish the flames. He retrieved, positioned and prepared a second 150-pound extinguisher to provide continued fire suppression and safe evacuation of the remaining crew members.

Moments later, the fire department arrived and extinguished the fire.

The fire-fighting crewchiefs not only contained the fire to ensure safe evacuation of all six crew members, but also minimized damage to the aircraft.

"I felt very confident handling this type of situation," Airman Negron said. "It just feels great knowing we saved the aircraft, but more importantly, we egressed the crew and no one was injured."

Maintainers are trained on extinguishing fires to a certain extent and although aircraft fire is a rarity here, they performed flawlessly.

"The actions we took out there represent what most maintainers would have done," Sergeant Bailey said. "Without even considering the dangers of fighting a fire without protective equipment, most maintainers will charge into any fire and try to extinguish it. We [maintainers] know that we are the first line of defense for any ground emergency.

Our actions, or lack thereof, can mean the difference between saving a jet and its crew, or losing a valuable combat asset and more importantly, the lives onboard."

The crewchiefs speculated the fire may have been caused from a leaking brake due to the fact that the hydraulic fluid that depresses the brake is flammable and when an aircraft lands, the brakes get warm.

Looking back, Sergeant Bailey is proud of how his fellow Airmen reacted.

"I am glad I had Airman Negron and Sergeant Robles out there with me," he said. "I've been in the Air Force for 19 years. This was the first aircraft fire I encountered. All the years of fire extinguisher training finally came to use. We operated exactly how we were trained to."

For their actions, the three crewchiefs will be awarded safety awards and achievement medals.