THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605180325
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
The Air Force temporarily halted flights of its C-27A Spartan transport planes after discovering cracks on a horizontal stabilizer fitting.
The fleet of 10 airplanes will not fly until all are inspected and cleared to resume flying, the Air Force said Friday. It said flights were halted Wednesday.
Small cracks were found on the horizontal stabilizer fitting of a C-27A during contractor maintenance at Waco, Texas, the Air Force said. The fitting is a part of the tail that holds the horizontal stabilizer to the fuselage.
The planes are based at Howard Air Force Base in Panama.
The Air Force also announced that one B-2 stealth bomber was cleared to fly Thursday, six days after the entire fleet of 10 B-2s was ordered to stop flying. The grounding was ordered May 10 after the discovery of a crack in a clamp that attaches the tail pipe assembly to the engine.
The one B-2 that has been cleared was flown from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., to the Northrop Grumman Corp. B-2 plant at Palmdale, Calif., to begin a scheduled retrofit.
The rest of the B-2 fleet remains grounded.
KEYWORDS: U.S. AIR FORCE by CNB