Marines Land Osprey on Mattresses After Landing Gear Fails to Deploy

Marines are known for their ability to stay calm under pressure and approach problems with a keen understanding of the dangers around them. For everything that could go wrong, no matter how unlikely, there is a plan in place that Marines are ready to execute at a moment’s notice.

Capt. Paul Keller, a pilot with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 165 along with his crew, proved once again that there’s nothing they’re not ready for.

Keller runs regular missions throughout the Central Command area of operations supporting Operation Inherent Resolve piloting an MV-22 Osprey.

Keller is no stranger to flying. He is an experienced pilot, who has been flying Ospreys for three years and was previously a CH-46 pilot before then.

“I went through flight school and then through Osprey flight school,” said Keller. “Once I got to my first squadron, I received my more advanced qualifications.”

During a hot night in late July, making their way back from a routine support mission, Keller and his crew started having problems with their landing gear – not one would deploy.

“We got the initial indication in Iraq, but we had enough gas to make it back here and troubleshoot the problem,” said Keller. “Inside our emergency procedures checklist, there are certain steps you run through and we ran through all of them, but the gear were still stuck up.”

Capt. Keller knew they had enough fuel to work on the problem and stayed aloft, instead of rushing in for an immediate emergency landing. Despite finishing the checklist with no success, Marines in the air and on the ground put their heads together to come up with new ideas to get the Ospreys landing gear to come down.

“We tried some further troubleshooting steps that the crew and the Quality Assurance shop had thought of while we were in a holding pattern around the airfield,” said Keller. “By that point, it became apparent that the gear weren’t going to come down.”

With the malfunction refusing to give in, the Marines knew they would have to use their emergency ‘landing pad’. At the end of the runway, they had previously staged mattresses, stacked high and strapped down, that would give the Osprey a soft spot to land on to minimize any damage.

“That is the actual published emergency procedure,” said Keller. “We’ve all read up on it before and the Marines already had the emergency landing pad set up.”

Though it is an extremely rare malfunction to have all three landing gear stuck in an up position, Keller had no doubts in the abilities of his crew under pressure.

“We were all confident that we were going to make it down alright,” said Keller. “This is a thing that we have all done drills for and read about, but this was our first real life application.”

Keller made the decision to make a hovering pass at the landing area, knowing that it would help remove the desert dust from the pad and maintain visuals with the ground personnel that were set up in advance. When the crew was ready, Keller brought the aircraft in approach and hovered over the landing pad. Then, he carefully lowered the aircraft into position.

Keller emphasized the calm and confidence of one Marine in particular, his crew chief, Cpl. Derek Levi.

“When we were landing, the crew chief had to give me calls telling me ‘you have to move right two feet’ or ‘come forward one foot,’” said Keller. “The crew chief, Cpl. Levi – he was on his game that day. He is a very experienced crew chief and he was extremely calm while giving us the input we needed. He was our eyes and a large part of making this successful.”

VMM-165 Marines had every possible helping hand standing by to respond if necessary. But, with Capt. Keller keeping the MV-22 hovering three feet in the air and Cpl. Levi dialing in the position by mere inches, the aircraft landed exactly where it needed to – perched on five piles of spring loaded support.

Keller explained that this event just goes to show how important the Marines’ hard work, training and meticulous safety procedures really are.

“Anytime we travel, we always bring all these mattresses everywhere we go and it takes a significant amount of manpower, time and planning to get all of the stuff on site,” said Keller. “But when that moment finally happened, we were prepared and everything turned out alright.”

During the rare landing, the aircraft suffered no damage, was repaired and flew again not long thereafter. For Keller and Levi, the unlikely event validated the procedures and training they constantly drill to second nature. And for the mattresses, they are still standing watch on the landing pad – ever vigilant and always ready.

UAE Eyeing For AW609 Tiltrotor

The United Arab Emirates has selected the AW609 design from AgustaWestland to fulfill its requirement for a tiltrotor search and rescue aircraft, the Armed Forces' Joint Aviation Command announced Tuesday.

However, a senior Boeing official told Defense News late Tuesday that the agreement should have no impact on ongoing discussions with the UAE about Bell Boeing’s V-22 design, as the company is targeting a different mission for the Osprey.

The selection of the AW609 gives a launch customer for the search and rescue design of the aircraft.

Delivery of the first three aircraft is expected to start in the "2019 timeframe," AgustaWestland said in a news release, while the UAE holds options on three more aircraft. The systems will be operated by the UAE's Joint Aviation Command.

"The UAE is about to sign a contract for buying three AgustaWestland 609s for the Joint Aviation Command," announced Maj. Gen. Abdullah Al Hashimi, the executive director of Strategic Analysis at the UAE Ministry of Defense. "We have signed a memorandum of understanding with AgustaWestland and wanted to announce our interest in the aircrafts, [and] contracts will be signed soon."

Al Hashimi later noted that "a contract amount has not been decided as we are still negotiating."

Added Brigadier pilot Saeed Al-Ali, from the UAE Armed Forces Joint Aviation Command, "the negotiations are still going on, the deal is almost closed, but we are negotiating small things and we are going over it and it will be done soon."

Big Win for AgustaWestland

The AW609 award comes at a key time for the AgustaWestland project, given a catastrophic crash of a prototype aircraft just days ago.

A prototype AW609 crashed during a test flight in Italy on Oct. 30, killing the two pilots. Witnesses reported the aircraft descended in flames as the pilots steered away from houses to crash in a unpopulated area.

The AW609 was selected due to its capabilities and flexibility, Al Hashimi said.

"This is a longer-range aircraft, which is slightly different to helicopter search-and-rescue aircraft," he said. "The reason we bought this aircraft is because it gives a longer capacity of staying in the air, better ability of picking up the injured so the capability gives us flexibility between rotor and fixed wing."

The company claims a max speed of 275 knots and a range of 750 nautical miles for the AW609 design purchased by the UAE. However, it is possible the UAE could benefit from future system upgrades.

AgustaWestland has been hard at work trying to add upgrades to the AW609. On March 3, the Italian firm said it was planning to increase maximum takeoff weight to 18,000 pounds thanks to engine upgrades, landing gear modifications and better flight control techniques. In short, the firm said then, the AW609 would be able to fly 500 nautical miles in two hours carrying nine passengers.

The AW609 development is currently on track, an AgustaWestland official told Defense News after the contract was awarded. However, the aircraft has been not been designed to handle combat situations but to handle commercial and light operations for now.

The official added that short takeoff testing for the aircraft started last year and that the company aims to bring a maximum range of over 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) using under-wing fuel tanks.

He added that there is interest from worldwide customers to buy 60 of the aircraft, while the UAE Joint Aviation Command is the launch SAR variant customer.

"The two teams will be working together and the UAE team will tell us the specific requirements for the search and rescue on the 609," said Daniele Romiti, chief executive officer for AgustaWestland.

"The equipment inside will be dedicated to rescue and medical materials and equipment and depending on the kind of accommodation internally we can bring two or four strechers," Romiti added.

Al Hashimi added that the choice of the AW609 was not driven by the UAE's experiences in the Saudi-led Yemen operations, but instead is due to the "mission capability" provided by the tiltrotor design.

The Joint Aviation Command is familiar with AgustaWestland products, as it operates eleven AW139 helicopters.

The Italian Navy and Army have suggested they would be interested in acquiring the aircraft.

V-22 Requirement Remains

A senior Boeing official told Defense News that the UAE is talking with the V-22 team about "a different capability" than the search and rescue capability filled by the AW209 design.

"That's not what they're talking to us about," the official said. "We've been talking in a different direction, much more than search and rescue."

In a statement, Bell made it clear the AW609 deal should not impact a potential agreement with the UAE on the V-22.

“There was not a competition for the search and rescue mission requirement for which the AW609 was selected,” Bell spokesperson Bridget Hall said in a statement. “The V-22 and the AW609 are simply not competitors in the market – one is a civil/commercial aircraft that may eventually be certified for use and the other is a military platform that is currently in production and is in operation around the world.”

“While we cannot disclose any specifics in the case of potential FMS sales, there are ongoing government-to-government discussions about the V-22 for other missions, as the V-22 has the unique capability to fulfill missions other platforms cannot.”

The V-22 is used primarily by the US Marines, which has a standing requirement for 360 MV-22 units around the world. The US Air Force has a requirement for 52 of the CV-22 variant. The Navy recently selected the aircraft to replace the C-2 Greyhound for the carrier-onboard-delivery mission, and will buy 44 aircraft.

Before the AW609 announcement, Richard Harris, Bell's vice president for international military business sales, told Defense News that the UAE has "a lot of interest right now" in the V-22.

In addition, he said the company expects to see interest from other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

"If you take a look at some of the other Gulf states and how they've been increasing their involvement in areas like Yemen and what's happening with ISIS, everybody has a vested interest in personnel recovery, combat search and rescue. I think there's some special ops forces missions that this aircraft does very well," Harris said.

Harris added that he anticipates demand in the Pacific region in the coming years, particularly from South Korea, Singapore and Australia.

Col. Dan Robinson, V-22 program manager, told reporters during a news conference an hour after the deal was announced that he is “not that concerned” that the UAE chose a different tiltrotor platform for the search-and-rescue mission, because the V-22 has the unique capability to fulfill missions other platforms can’t.

The Navy is in negotiations for the third multiyear contract for the aircraft. Bell-Boeing and the Navy are desperately seeking additional international and domestic customers to reduce the aircraft’s unit cost. The program office needs a commitment by June 2016 to include the additional customers in the base multiyear contract, Robinson said.

“The quantities of the first three years from a production line, smooth flow perspective is not what we’re looking for or what Bell-Boeing is looking for,” Robinson said. “There is an opportunity with capacity there for foreign military sales to help us out there.”

The multiyear strategy, which must be approved by Congress, could reduce unit cost of the aircraft by 10 percent, Robinson said.

During the interview, Harris touted the V-22's speed and versatility.

"A helicopter sitting there cruising at 100, 125 miles an hour just can't keep up with a V-22, which can take off and ... immediately transition to be an aircraft going 250, 260 miles per hour," Harris said. "That dynamic alone … it kind of makes everything else before it obsolete.