May 5, 2013 - On Friday An Air Force KC-135
Stratotanker assigned to the Transit Center at
Manas near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan explode in midair
then crashed in the mountains of northern
Kyrgyzstan, all three airmen were killed. The
Defense Department has identified the airmen as
Captain Mark T. Voss, 27, of Colorado Springs,
Colo., Captain Victoria A. Pinckney, 27, of
Palmdale and Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of
Bakersfield, Calif.
Kyrgyzstan Emergencies Minister Kubatbek Boronov
reported on Saturday morning, in the rugged
mountains of Kyrgyzstan first responders
extracted fragmented bodies of two airmen near
the crash site. The third crewmember is till
missing. Witnesses report the aircraft exploded,
broke in half and a crewmember was had
parachuted from the aircraft.
The KC-135 crashed 100 miles west of the air
base it was on a refueling mission for
Afghanistan war operations at the time of the
crash. The wreckage is reported to be scattered
across a wide area.
Kyrgyz officials report the KC-135 Stratotanker
(92d Air Refueling Wing) had taken off from the
US military installation, Transit Centre at
Manas International Airport, near Bishkek, with
some 70 tons of fuel on board.
The 92d Air Refueling Wing (92 ARW) is a United
States Air Force unit assigned to the Air
Mobility Command Eighteenth Air Force. It is
stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base,
Washington. The wing is also the host unit at
Fairchild.
The 92d ARW is responsible for providing air
refueling, as well as rapid and reliable
passenger and cargo airlift and aero-medical
evacuation missions supporting U.S. and
coalition conventional operations as well as
U.S. Strategic Command strategic deterrence
missions.
The KC-135 Stratotanker provides the core aerial
refueling capability for the United States Air
Force and has excelled in this role for more
than 50 years. It also provides aerial refueling
support to the Navy, Marine Corps and allied
nation aircraft.
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