One More Reason/Excuse To Ask For A Window Seat
The Air Force notes that many of us occasionally hear stories of
Airmen saving lives in combat, but in this case, an Airman who
saves the lives of more than 300 airline passengers is definitely a
story worth hearing.
A fuel leak on a civilian aircraft caught the attention of Staff
Sgt. Bartek Bachleda, 909th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator,
during a flight from Chicago to Narita airport, Japan. After
alerting the pilots and aircrew, the ranking pilot made the
decision to divert the flight to San Francisco.
"I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right
behind the wing earlier during take-off," said Sergeant Bachleda.
Sergeant Bachleda continued analyzing the outflow of fuel to be 100
percent sure it was a leak while the plane was reaching cruising
altitude. Almost an hour into the flight, he told a stewardess of
the possible leak, but was given an unconcerned response.
Sergeant Bachleda then began to capture the possible leak on
video. He then got the stewardess' attention by saying, "Ma'am it's
an emergency." He identified himself to her and showed her the leak
on video.
"She was completely serious and was
no longer handing out drinks," he said. "I told her you need to
inform your captain before we go oceanic." The captain came from
the cockpit to where Sergeant Bachleda was sitting to see the leak
and view the video footage. Sergeant Bachleda said the captain and
the crew were trying to figure out how the aircraft was losing
6,000 pounds of fuel an hour and then they knew exactly what was
going on.
The captain made a mid-air announcement the flight would be
diverted back to Chicago, but then changed it to San Francisco so
passengers could catch the only existing flight to Narita airport.
Once the flight arrived in San Francisco, Sergeant Bachleda and a
coworker were asked to stay back while the aircraft was deplaned.
They waited for the arrival of investigators, the fire chief, and
the owner of the airport to explain what went wrong.
"When we got off the airplane everyone was thanking us," said
the sergeant. While conversing with the captain, the sergeant said
he was hesitant at first to inform them about the leak, but he knew
it was abnormal. The captain said they would have never made it to
Japan if it wasn't for him.
The two Airmen were placed in a hotel overnight and flew back to
Japan the next morning. The airline company showed their
appreciation by seating them first-class. [ANN Salutes Tech. Sgt.
Rey Ramon, 18th Wing Public Affairs]