An Expensive Chain of Events
BY MAJOR DANICA MOTTOLA
hat was supposed to be a benign cross-country, ferrying an aircraft from MCAS New River to MCAS Yuma, turned into an expensive and time-consuming lesson for both the pilots and maintainers of HMLA-269. The flight consisted of one AH-1W Cobra and two UH-1Y Hueys. The planned route of flight was from New River to Pensacola on a Friday, through Austin and El Paso over the weekend, and arriving in Yuma on Monday. We departed mid-morning and arrived at the 24
first scheduled fuel stop in Columbia, South Carolina. From Columbia to Albany, Georgia, we started to see evidence of the predicted thunderstorms. In Albany, we refueled and checked the weather forecast for the rest of the flight to Pensacola. Getting into Pensacola Approach
