Page 2 - Bullseye 5-22-15

2 May 22, 2015
Yokota aircrew recounts Nepal earthquake
By Maj. Gregory Kantz
374th Airlift Wing
KATHMANDU, Nepal—We were
tasked with taking an 11-man special
forces team from Kadena Air Base, Ja-
pan, to Kathmandu, Nepal, for a train-
ing exercise. After being cleared by air
traffic control, we landed uneventfully.
Moments after touching down, we
cleared the runway and immediately
felt the aircraft begin shaking and
rocking. Our initial inclination was
that we may have blown a tire, which
seemed odd as we were no longer taxi-
ing. Looking across the ramp, we saw
half dozen large airliners with their
wings swinging wildly and scores of
people running away from the aircraft
and out of buildings onto the ramp.
People were abandoning their vehicles
as well as running off stairs that were
connected to aircraft.
It became evident the rocking wasn’t
something going on only in our air-
craft or due to strong winds; looking
up at the horizon, dust clouds began
popping up all around the bowl-
shaped airfield and the city surround-
ing it. That’s when we realized there
had been an earthquake.
Immediately following the earth-
quake, the airport shut down for a
couple hours while Nepalese officials
tried to assess whether it was safe to
resume normal operations. Though
I cannot be positive, I’m sure several
airliners, which had been waiting to
land, had to divert due to the shut-
down.
After we got our aircraft parked and
shut down, we spent a couple hours on
the ground inside the plane before we
could get transportation for our pas-
sengers. We ended up driving through
downtown and saw some wreckage
along the way. The U.S. embassy team
was still trying to assess the full scale
of the situation with the limited com-
munications capabilities they had at
that time.
The hotel we stayed in that night was
full of tourists in the lobby, and the
rooms were covered with broken glass
from the lights and showers. Water
leaked into the rooms from the walls
and ceilings, but it was still a welcome
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Commentary BULLSEYE
place to settle for the night. We swept Courtesy photo
the glass off our beds onto the floor so
we could get some sleep, expecting to Members of the U.S. Air Force view the damage in Nepal firsthand following the
leave the next day as planned. devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that damaged many parts of the country.
That night, there were several more peditionary Force and the Contingency a good portion of the city to the south.
aftershocks, with one large one around Response Group that had come from We landed and got the team out. We
5 a.m., which ended up being in the Kadena that morning into Kathmandu
5.6 range. Some aircrew members on to evaluate the area and determine spent more than four hours on the
the sixth floor were naturally pretty what further assets would be required. ground getting fuel and trying to work
alarmed and reported many more af- out our air traffic control clearance.
tershocks throughout the night. In the We loaded up 22 passengers and We eventually got our duty day waiver
morning, we awoke to the news that three pallets and took as much gas as approved and were able to fly back to
staying at the hotel was no longer vi- we could safely carry, given our cargo Thailand through the night.
able due to structural damage. load. As we approached Kathmandu,
we were requested to hold for traffic Needless to say, it was an experience I
The embassy brought us in to spend and told to anticipate a one-and-a-half will never forget. As a world leader, the
the next night there. The embassy had to two-hour delay, as there were several U.S. has a great responsibility to help
opened its doors not only to Depart- aircraft in front of us. Since we were those in need, particularly when they
ment of Defense and State Department fuel-limited at that point, we made reg- are devastated by natural disasters like
employees and families, but also to any ular updates to air traffic control advis- these. As U.S. service members, we are
American civilians who happened to be ing them of our time left to emergency forever grateful for the opportunity to
travelling there. It had become a safe- fuel, which would have caused us to di- serve our country and partners abroad,
haven for Americans waiting to leave vert to India with the assessment team. however and whenever we can.
Nepal as the airport was crowded with
hundreds of people sleeping in make- Fortunately, they were able to give us Editor’s note: This is a first-person ac-
shift tents that covered the grounds priority to land. Flying the descent into count by a C-130H Hercules aircrew mem-
outside the packed terminal. the airfield with night vision goggles, ber who landed in Kathmandu, Nepal, just
we noticed the airfield lost lighting moments before a magnitude 7.8 earth-
The city continued to experience momentarily a couple of times, as did quake struck the country April 25.
tremors that drove many out of build-
ings. Throngs of people lingered out-
side and on the streets, afraid to go
back into their homes for fear they
were structurally unsound after the
quakes. Later trips to the airport re-
vealed a city riddled with pockets of
devastation caused by the earthquakes.
At the ambassador’s request, we spent
about 50 hours on the ground so we
could provide evacuations, if required,
while they continued to track down
Americans throughout the country.
The Marine guards at the embassy
graciously shared a portion of their
office space with us so we could have
adequate crew rest. Most of the em-
bassy workers had pulled their families
into their cubicle areas to sleep and the
American civilians had some sleeping
bags strewn about where they could
find space.
Due to the influx of international aid
and at the request of the airfield man-
ager, we left Kathmandu to make ramp
space available. We assumed alert sta-
tus in Thailand, ready to respond for
any evacuation mission that should
arise. On April 29, we were alerted to
bring a team from the III Marine Ex-
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