Considered Bailing Out, B-1B Crew Says : Rockwell Assured Air Force Stricken Plane Could Land Safely

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — Crew members of a crippled B-1B bomber that made an emergency landing here said Thursday that they had considered bailing out but decided against it after officials from Rockwell International, the plane’s builder, persuaded them that the aircraft could land safely.

After the Texas-based plane arrived over this base in Kern County on Wednesday afternoon, Rockwell engineers advised the Air Force that even with its nose gear stuck in a retracted position the $285-million bomber could withstand the landing on the 6-mile-long clay runway at Rogers Dry Lake.

“We decided as a crew (to land the plane),” Lt. Col. Joseph G. Day, the bomber’s offensive systems instructor told reporters a day after the harrowing, nearly 12-hour flight. “We had a high confidence level that the plane was going to be OK.”

Capt. Jeffrey K. Beene, 30, the pilot of the swing-wing bomber, described the nose-up landing about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday as an unemotional matter of following procedures. He said it was “a normal landing, nothing different than any B-1 pilot is trained to do.”

“My crew followed through with those (procedures) flawlessly,” he said. “In our business, that’s the way you’re going to accomplish things if you want a safe result.”

Once the plane was down, Beene said, the crew’s concern shifted to getting out and away from the aircraft.

Crew members attributed their safe landing to the bomber’s structural strength as well as to the advice and assistance they received throughout the flight from Air Force and Rockwell officials.

Day described the landing as a “feeling of rolling forever” on the runway and said the touchdown was “somewhat teeth-rattling.”

The airborne ordeal began Wednesday morning at Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Tex., when the bomber’s front landing gear, which is operated hydraulically, failed to lower after a routine three-hour training flight.

The plane was refueled twice by an airborne tanker as it circled the base for four hours. It was then sent to Edwards on a four-hour flight where it landed safely in a billowing trail of dust with only minimal damage.

Air Force officials announced Thursday that they have convened an “incident investigation” board to determine the cause of the landing gear malfunction. Findings are expected in about a month, officials said.

Along with Beene of Cleburne, Tex., and Day, 39, of Fayetteville, N.C., other crew members were co-pilot Capt. Vernon B. Benton, 30, of Odessa, Tex., and offensive systems officer Capt. Robert H. Hendricks, 31, of Vanalstyne, Tex.

Times staff writer Edward J. Boyer contributed to this story.