A BDF Defender which crashed landed in the swamps near Gales Point in early April has been recovered. The "defender 05" was returning from a reconnaissance mission over Toledo on April 3rd when the pilot experienced technical problems and made an emergency landing 5 miles north of Gales Point.
It landed in the swamp but the 8 passengers onboard, all of them soldiers, were safely evacuated. Yesterday with the assistance of two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters, the Defender was removed from Gales Point and flown back to the hangar at BDF's Air Wing at the International Airport. Lt. Col. Howard Arey from the Joint Task Force Bravo of the U.S. Army led the recovery operation.
Lt. Col. Howard Arey, U.S. Army
"I brought some of my team down from my battalion. They did the rigging of the aircraft and it actually came out of the mud great so the preparation work was fantastic. We wanted to make sure it flew well with the aerodynamics and didn't spin around and cause any harm to the aircrew and it flew great so my team did a great job rigging the aircraft and we were able to get it back here safely.
I am glad your pilots were able to walk away because it was thick. The grass was five to seven foot tall, lots of small trees and brush, so I am happy your team is safe and no one got injured."
Major Raymond Shepherd, Commander - BDF Airwing
"First thing we are going to do is do an assessment to see if it will be possible to get it airborne again. We will try and contact the manufacturer of the aircraft to let them come and do an assessment. But as you can see it is damaged, quite a bit of damage has been done and we want to commend the pilot because taking into consideration the amount of damage, we have to commend him for his forced landing procedures which allowed eight persons walk away."
The aircraft will be assessed to see if it is repairable.
