Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, plans to inspect all of its F-15E Strike Eagles after one of the fighters was forced to conduct an emergency landing with a missing wheel.
The planned safety inspections were announced Wednesday morning, two days after an F-15E returned from a deployment to Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia but discovered mid-flight that it had lost one of its wheels.
That F-15E landed safely and without injury to the two airmen aboard — who are from the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron — and a safety investigation is now under way. The wheel was recovered on the flight line at Diego Garcia.
“The way the aircrew handled the landing is a testament to their training and professionalism, and I want to thank the first responders and safety teams for being poised and ready to respond,” Brig. Gen. John Gallemore, commander of the 18th Wing at Kadena, said in a statement. “This event fortifies my confidence in Team Kadena’s ability to react to complex problems on a moment’s notice.”
Kadena said that its F-15Es will return to flight status immediately after their safety inspections. The runway at Kadena where the wheel-less fighter landed has also been inspected and is fully operational, the base said.
Kadena’s F-15Es are from the 336th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. They deployed to Japan in 2023 to ensure the base has enough fighters to accomplish its missions, while the service returned Kadena’s aging F-15 C and D Eagle fighters to the United States for retirement.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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