Spring Break
Low flying plane disturbs students
MATTHEW QUINN
Issue date: 3/28/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Jacob Smith, a freshman from Helen, got an unusual wake-up call on Wednesday morning.
"I was asleep in my dorm, and I had the window cracked," he said. "It was like a really loud car right beside my window."
It wasn't a car that yanked him from his sleep - it was a military cargo plane.
An Air Force C-17 Globemaster III was conducting practice landing runs over the University campus.
Marcus Lane, a junior from Heidelburg, Germany, was in the gardens behind the Snelling dining hall with horticulture professor Allan Armitage when he saw it. The aircraft conducted several passes over the campus. He said he thought there were several aircrafts.
"The first plane came from over the North Deck," he said. "It was really low for a plane that size." The aircraft returned a second time 10 minutes later and a third time five minutes later.
He said the Armitage had worked with aircraft before and thought the plane was about to crash, so abnormal was its flight pattern.
"He was actually pretty scared," Lane said.
Tim Beggerly, airport manager at the Ben Epps Field on Lexington Road, said the C-17 did not actually land at the airport.
"He's too heavy to land here," Beggerly said. "The Runway is long enough for that airplane - it's designed for short runways - but our runways won't support the weight of that type of aircraft."
Allan Yager, an operations technician at the airport, said the plane did about three approaches.
"It didn't actually land, but it did get close to the ground. Close enough to pick up all the dust and the pollen," he said.
According to the Federation of American Scientists' Web site, the C-17 Globemaster III is a large cargo aircraft used by the United States
Air Force, the British Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. Each C-17 is capable of carrying a payload of 170,900 pounds or 102 soldiers or paratroopers. After some delays, the first operational C-17 squadron was deployed in 1995.
"I was asleep in my dorm, and I had the window cracked," he said. "It was like a really loud car right beside my window."
It wasn't a car that yanked him from his sleep - it was a military cargo plane.
An Air Force C-17 Globemaster III was conducting practice landing runs over the University campus.
Marcus Lane, a junior from Heidelburg, Germany, was in the gardens behind the Snelling dining hall with horticulture professor Allan Armitage when he saw it. The aircraft conducted several passes over the campus. He said he thought there were several aircrafts.
"The first plane came from over the North Deck," he said. "It was really low for a plane that size." The aircraft returned a second time 10 minutes later and a third time five minutes later.
He said the Armitage had worked with aircraft before and thought the plane was about to crash, so abnormal was its flight pattern.
"He was actually pretty scared," Lane said.
Tim Beggerly, airport manager at the Ben Epps Field on Lexington Road, said the C-17 did not actually land at the airport.
"He's too heavy to land here," Beggerly said. "The Runway is long enough for that airplane - it's designed for short runways - but our runways won't support the weight of that type of aircraft."
Allan Yager, an operations technician at the airport, said the plane did about three approaches.
"It didn't actually land, but it did get close to the ground. Close enough to pick up all the dust and the pollen," he said.
According to the Federation of American Scientists' Web site, the C-17 Globemaster III is a large cargo aircraft used by the United States
Air Force, the British Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. Each C-17 is capable of carrying a payload of 170,900 pounds or 102 soldiers or paratroopers. After some delays, the first operational C-17 squadron was deployed in 1995.
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