Photo By Cpl. Samuel Ellis | Cpl. Robert Smith looks through a pair of binoculars at the Marine Corps Air Facility...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. - It was just another routine shift for Cpl. Robert Smith, an air traffic controller at the Marine Corps Air Facility, as he started his shift. Little did the three-year ATC specialist know that during that shift he would have to make a decision that could ultimately save lives and millions of dollars’ worth of government equipment.
Acting in a supervisory role that day, Smith stood in the MCAF control tower and watched a Boeing C-17, one of the military’s largest aircraft, and according to a Congressional Research Service Report for Congress costs more than $200 million each, touchdown at the air field. It was what happened after landing that caught his attention.
“It looked like a normal landing,” said Smith. “And then, [one of my crew] noticed smoke coming from the back two tires.”
The situation was a condition commonly known by those who work in the wing as, “hot brakes,” and according to ATC and Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Marines, while it is a common occurrence, it could have turned into an extremely serious problem if not handled correctly.
“Smoke coming from a brake assembly is normal when the aircraft is landing but after taxiing, that’s not common,” said Sgt. Shawn Litchfield, ARFF incident commander during the emergency. “He made the right call by notifying us because, if the parts overheated and were introduced to an accelerant, then that would have caused a fire.”
According to responders, the brakes of the aircraft had reached a temperature of more than 450 degrees, which was accelerated by a deicer liquid that was applied to prevent icing to the plane before the aircraft’s flight to Quantico.
“It turned out to be a very important,” said Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Szewczyk, the ARFF officer-in-charge. “There was deicer fluid on the brakes. There could have been some chemical reaction between the heat and the deicing fluid that could have caused [the brakes] to continue to heat up or maybe even cause some type of fire.”
Without hesitation, Smith, a young noncommissioned officer, ordered an emergency call to the Marines of the ARFF team, who responded within minutes and cooled the brakes down before the incident could turn into a larger problem.
Smith was praised for immediately implementing his training without hesitation or apathy.
“It was his [Smith’s] judgment that averted a potential hazard,” said Cpt. Jarrod Robinson, ATC officer-in-charge. “He made it safe.”
Correspondent: samuel.l.ellis@usmc.mil
| Date Taken: | 02.18.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2014 11:22 |
| Story ID: | 120748 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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