Ouch...
By Bruce Rolfsen
Times staff writer
A B-1B Lancer made a wheels-up belly landing at Diego Garcia Monday,
skidding down the runway for 7,500 feet, according to Air Force reports. The
four-person aircrew escaped from the plane. The B-1B was home based with the
7th Bomb Wing, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.
The 20-year-old bomber was landing at Diego Garcia, a remote base in the
Indian Ocean, at the end of a ferry mission that started at Andersen Air
Force Base, Guam. The Air Force won't say why the crew landed the plane with
its landing gear retracted.
During the landing, the B-1B caught fire and emergency crews extinguished
the flames.
Because damage estimates are more than $1 million, separate Air Force
accident and safety investigation boards will look for the cause of the
accident.
Production of the supersonic bombers ended in the mid-1980s. With inflation
taken into account, today the planes would cost more than $283 million each.