FlightFollowerUSAF B-52 and ATC Team Up to guide Lost Cessna Flying Over Alaska Mountains
A routine B-52 training mission became an unexpected assistance task when the crew received a distress call from Anchorage controllers about a Cessna 172 lost in mountainous Alaska. The Cessna pilot was in poor weather and had already entered a situation in which visual navigation was no longer reliable. The two bomber crews used their position and communications capability to help controllers locate and guide the smaller aircraft.
Accident Facts
- Date
- 10 November 2013
A military training mission became a rescue-support task
contemporary reporting says the B-52 crews were on a routine training mission when Anchorage Air Traffic Control Center requested for assistance. The bomber was not responding to an aircraft emergency of its own; it became another resource available to controllers dealing with a lost general-aviation aircraft.
The exercise was one of the Air Force's largest
The two B-52s were part of Exercise Global Thunder 14, the largest Air Force Global Strike Command and U.S. Strategic Command exercise of 2013, which had 18 B-52s and several B-2 stealth bombers airborne at the same time, supported by more than 22 KC-135 tankers. HAIL13, the Minot-based aircraft, was about 200 miles from the Cessna pilot's estimated position when the distress call came in. Its aircraft commander, Capt. Joshua M. Middendorf, said the crew's first step was practical rather than effective: they calculated their remaining fuel before committing to the diversion, also checking that HAIL14, the Barksdale wingman, would still have enough fuel to return home after the diversion.
The Cessna was operating in a difficult environment
The source describes the smaller aircraft as lost in mountainous terrain and surrounded by overcast. That combination removed the visual references on which the pilot had been relying. The account emphasizes that the Cessna was in a situation where small heading changes could materially change its terrain clearance.
Coordination rather than substitution
The B-52 did not replace ATC. The source describes a coordinated effort in which the military crew contributed its position and assistance while controllers continued directing the Cessna.
The documented record
"The first thing we did was calculate our fuel to make sure we had enough." — Capt. Joshua M. Middendorf, HAIL13 aircraft commander
Conclusion
The event is best understood as a coordination story: a military aircraft on a training mission became an additional resource for civilian controllers dealing with a lost aircraft. The available account supports the broad sequence and the terrain/weather threat, but not a detailed reconstruction of every heading or altitude.