It wasn’t an emergency touchdown, however a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey lately skilled a mechanical subject that precipitated the pilot and several other others onboard to land at Baldwin County Regional Airport.
They have been there for a number of days till repairs might be made, based on Bruce Hood, normal supervisor of Sinclair Aviation, which manages day-to-day operations on the native airport.
He mentioned the pilot by no means declared an emergency.
The pilot was alerted by a warning sensor that one thing was improper, Hood mentioned.
“The helicopter was touring from North Carolina to Arizona,” Hood advised The Union-Recorder throughout an interview Wednesday morning. “They have been all active-duty Marines. When the plane acquired near Milledgeville, it developed a vibration sensor in considered one of its rotors and the pilot determined to land right here at our airport as a security precaution.”
As soon as they landed, among the crew members did some troubleshooting.
“We loaned them some instruments to do their troubleshooting,” Hood mentioned. “They ended up calling in a second unit to come back assist them. They later discovered that they had an even bigger downside than they initially thought, so that they needed to truly take away the rotor on the right-hand facet of the plane and exchange just a few elements earlier than they may get that plane repaired and flying once more.”
Throughout that point, that they had quite a few different MV-22s fly in with help tools to restore the unhealthy rotor. Different mechanical and technical help personnel arrived to assist make the required repairs.
Hood mentioned he talked with the commander of the squadron and requested if it could be OK if he known as a few folks from Qarbon Aerospace in Milledgeville to come back out and have a look.
“They have been ecstatic about that concept and advised me to convey them on out to the airport,” Hood mentioned.
A number of folks from the corporate that occurs to fabricate elements for the MV-22 Osprey got here out and toured the plane.
“And I believed that was an exquisite factor,” Hood mentioned.
Items of appreciation have been introduced to personnel by Matt Grubb, one of many officers at Qarbon Aerospace.
“You possibly can inform it actually meant lots to those that obtained these trinkets,” Hood mentioned.
A number of native residents additionally got here to the airport to see the helicopters, he recalled.
The plane remained grounded for almost per week.
“Throughout that point, the 16 active-duty Marines stayed at motels in Milledgeville,” Hood mentioned.
And so did a number of others who got here in to work on the Osprey.
Hood mentioned Sinclair Aviation additionally loaned them its courtesy SUV so they may journey backwards and forwards from the motel to eating places and again to the airport.
“We have been greater than glad to help them in any method we probably might,” Hood mentioned. “We took the chance right here at Sinclair Aviation on two totally different events to feed them. We fed them Jersey Mike sub-sandwiches at some point, and one other day, we fed them pizza.”
Earlier than they departed the airport earlier this week, Hood recalled them saying that of all of the locations to interrupt down, Milledgeville was in all probability among the best locations it might have occurred due to the nice and cozy hospitality they obtained.
“It wasn’t simply from us right here at Sinclair Aviation, it was from our neighborhood at-large,” Hood mentioned. “It was very nice to assist them of their time of want as a result of they’ve at all times been first to assist our nation in time of want.”
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