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Senior NCO awarded Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake Aircraft Save Award

  • Published
  • Headquarters Air Force Flight Standards Agency
Oklahoma City, Okla. --  Master Sgt. Linda Sawyer of the 325th Operations Support Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., earned the Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake Aircraft Save Award for her contribution to aviation safety excellence while deployed to Jordan. Sawyer is the first nominee selected for the award since July 2011.

On Nov. 1, 2013, while providing transient alert services, Sawyer drove on a parallel taxiway in preparation to provide Follow-Me service to an approaching aircraft. The C-130 was about 3.5 miles out when Sawyer noticed an unauthorized truck on the runway. She immediately notified the control tower about the truck and advised the controllers that the runway was unsafe for the arriving C-130. The controller instructed the C-130 to "go around" just as the aircraft was about to cross the landing threshold, resulting in a pass of only 75 to 100 feet over the vehicle.

The driver of the truck sped toward the departure end of the runway with Sawyer in chase. The suspect left the runway environment, and parked near a building. After the driver entered the building, Sawyer observed the situation from her vehicle and reported to the tower that all vehicles were off the runway. The C-130 landed safely.

Sawyer's immediate notification to the control tower kept the controller from clearing the C-130 to land, avoiding the destruction of a $66M Air Force asset, and saving the lives of 19 people. Headquarters Air Force Flight Standards Agency meets quarterly to evaluate award nominations and determined that Sawyer's actions were clearly the only difference between disaster and a safe landing.

The criteria for an Aircraft Save Award, according to Air Force Instruction 36-2807, Headquarters United States Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Plans and Requirements Annual Awards Program, is action that results in the safe recovery of an imperiled airborne aircraft or help given to an endangered aircraft on the ground. The action must clearly extend beyond normal duty requirement, be professional and cast no reasonable doubt that, without this action, damage would have likely resulted.