WASHINGTON -US Navy Command and Control Jet narrowly excapes big disaster.
A E-6B Mercury belonging to the US Navy and assigned to Air Test andEvaluation Squadron 20 at Maryland-based Naval Air Station Patuxent Riverended up sustaining at least $2 million in damages and was left temporarilygrounded after being hit by a bird, Sputnik has reported.
According to Navy Times, the plane, which serves as an airborne command andcontrol post, and which connects US nuclear forces to the president and thesecretary of defence, sustained damage after a yet unknown species of aviangot sucked into one of its four engines when the aircraft was performing atouch and go landing on 2 October.
While Tim Boulay, a spokesman for Naval Air Warfare Center AircraftDivision, revealed that a test and evaluation team was aboard the plane atthe time, fortunately, no one was injured.
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Boulay added that the stricken engine has been replaced and the plane hasalready returned to service.
The newspaper notes that this was the fifth Class A mishap – an incidentthat results in more than $2 million damages, death or permanent disability– involving a bird strike during the last decade.
