I’m going to keep the names out of this until I see it somewhere else, and this may be a new cool urban legend, but here goes:
a military C-5a was stopped by the efforts of two airline employees. An Atlantic Southeast employee … frantically chased after the C-5a upon noticing it had ran over a 100 lb fire extinguisher. The extinguisher was lodged in between the nose gear and sparking profusely as it rolled forward. To no avail the crew at first didn’t want to stop, thinking this was two crazed women chasing a “C-5a.”
After stopping the a/c the crew came down and inspected the damage they had done. They had no wing walkers and/or ramp personnel to guide them out. They assumed the ramp was free and clear.
WRONG ASSUMPTION!
After speaking to the captain, the a/c was at gross weight of 1,000,000 lbs including 230,000 lbs of fuel. They were headed to Kuwait with 2 tanks and military trucks needed in the Middle East.
Good job ladies, and thanks. I have to think the vibration from a 100# imbalance would have caused the crew to abort the takeoff, but then at a million pounds, how much vibration is damped?
