Air Force launches investigation into tornado damage of jets at Offutt

The damaged jets include eight RC-135 surveillance planes belonging to the Offutt-based 55th Wing and two E-4B “Nightwatch” aircraft of the 595th Command and Control Group. They had been stored on the tarmac at Offutt, or partly inside hangars with their tails exposed.

Air Force officials would not give details about the damage to the jets, citing operational security. A brief statement released a week after the storm acknowledged the damage to 10 aircraft and said six of the RC-135s had been returned to service.

The two E-4Bs represent half of the Nightwatch fleet, but other aircraft are capable of filling its role in a pinch as a national airborne command center, experts say.

“The mission will continue,” said Al Buckles, former director of logistics at the Offutt-based U.S. Strategic Command. “This is not the first time we’ve been down to two aircraft.”

The Safety Investigation Board has been organized by the Air Combat Command, which is the higher headquarters for the 55th Wing. The investigation is expected to take about three months, said Drew Nystrom, a 55th Wing spokesman.

But the results won’t be made public. Safety board findings are routinely withheld because of pledges of confidentiality given to crew members, in the interests of promoting safety.

The lack of information has fueled discussion about the events leading up to the June 16 tornado. Some people have wondered whether the commanders of the 55th and the 595th should have ordered the jets flown out of the path of danger.

That’s common practice when a hurricane threatens a military airfield, several retired military officers said.

But tropical systems usually cover a wide area and come with a day or more of warning.

“You can’t evacuate every time there’s a thunderstorm,” said retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Keck, a former 55th Wing and 8th Air Force commander. “You’re spending a lot of money and effort and time. I would never try to judge a sitting (wing) commander.”

Still, Reg Urschler of Bellevue, a retired brigadier general who commanded the 55th Wing from 1978 to 1980, said he wouldn’t have wanted to answer to his chain of command for tornado-damaged aircraft.

“It would be a very uncomfortable situation,” Urschler said.

The tornadoes in Bellevue and at Offutt struck about 8 p.m., with little or no warning. But the same storm had produced severe winds and tornadoes for more than two hours as it marched from northeast Nebraska toward the Omaha metro area. The EF1 tornado at Offutt knocked down limbs, uprooted hundreds of large trees and damaged nearly two dozen buildings around the parade grounds.

Brian Smith, meteorologist and warning coordinator for the National Weather Service office in Valley, said it was the strongest storm to hit the metro area since 2014.

55th Wing officials wouldn’t discuss their storm planning. But those at other Air Force bases in tornado-prone areas described a procedure in which, on days deemed risky for storms, commanders keep a close watch on weather systems.

“We’re always on alert,” said Maj. Jon Quinlan, a spokesman for the 507th Air Refueling Wing, a reserve unit of KC-135s at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. “If there’s enhanced risk, we start to look at the possibilities.”

They may request extra hangar space from other wings at the base to help shelter their eight aircraft, but Quinlan said they rarely fly them away.

“You can’t guess where a tornado is going to hit,” he said.

Commanders at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, do sometimes fly their aircraft out of harm’s way, said 2nd Lt. Carla Stefaniak, spokeswoman for McConnell’s 22nd Air Refueling Wing. The wing’s commander decided on May 18, for instance, to move 13 KC-135s to bases in California and North Dakota. On that day, central Kansas faced a high risk of strong storms.

“It’s basically a risk assessment,” Stefaniak said. “Every base is different. There’s really no set-in-stone way to do it.”

steve.liewer@owh.com, 402-444-1186