CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi HU-25 Falcon jet was removed from the Eagle County Regional Airport runway in Gypsum, Colo., Tuesday, after suffering a collapsed nose landing gear while landing.
A Coast Guard maintenance and engineering team is enroute to Eagle County Airport to assess the Falcon’s damage. The aircraft is currently in an airport hangar.
The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon while the Falcon crew was conducting a training mission. Upon landing, the crew noticed an abnormal vibration before the nose landing gear collapsed causing the aircraft to skid down the runway. The crew deployed a dragchute, which helped the Falcon decelerate and come to a stop 500 feet from the end of the runway.
There were no injuries.
The five-person Falcon crew was conducting a training mission and was scheduled to return to Corpus Christi Tuesday afternoon. The Eagle County Airport was chosen because it has a suitable runway length and width and is home to a National Guard facility that could be used to obtain fuel. Conducting training at Eagle County Airport minimized congestion of heavily trafficked airports such as Denver International Airport.
“Jet airway and cold weather training is necessary to keep our pilots proficient in aircraft performance and power management,” said Capt. Bob Paulison, commander of Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi. “Flying a variety of instrument approach procedures, working with different air traffic control support, and conducting landings and adjusting to conditions at a range of airports and in a range of environments enables our crews to be ready to respond to various missions throughout the world.”
All Coast Guard assets are deployable worldwide and are tasked with a wide variety of Department of Homeland Security missions.
“One primary point to take from this incident is the importance of training. Our flight crew remained calm, used their training, and prevented a more tragic outcome,” said Paulison.
The cause on the incident is under investigation.
