What went wrong? KC-135 from 128th Air Refueling Wing forced to make emergency landing

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A KC-135 aircraft from the 128th Air Refueling Wing made an emergency landing at General Mitchell International Airport Tuesday evening, January 27th after experiencing a possible mechanical issue. So what went wrong?

The plane landed safely shortly before 9:00 p.m., and taxied back to the 128th Air Refueling Wing without a problem. Four people were on board, and we're told none of them were injured.

The aircraft, from the 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard was taking part in a training mission Tuesday.

"To refuel a receiver and come back and do some approach work," Major Jim Sullivan, Director of Air Crew Training at the 128th Air Refueling Wing said.

By all accounts, the mission was a success, and sometime after 8:00 p.m. the KC-135 had a green light to head home. Before the plane could land, warning lights started to go off. Something was wrong with the plane.

"They weren't sure where it was coming from at the time. We had an in flight emergency, where had some smoke and fumes in the cabin," Major Sullivan said.

Major Sullivan says a soldier on board had to make sure the plane was safe to land. The Air National Guard says these planes are an average of 50 years old, though nowadays rebuilt with newer parts. Even so, parts will fail at times.

"We do have situations like this come up every so often and so we train our air crews each and every day through local flights and simulators to be able to deal with these situations," Major Sullivan said.

Major Sullivan says about 20 minutes passed between the time the smoke entered the cabin, and the plane landing safely at General Mitchell International Airport.

We're told the plane's main battery may have malfunctioned, leading to the emergency landing.



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