Air Force’s Crop Duster Converted Into Attack Plane Crash Lands In Field

One of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s new OA-1K Skyraider II gentle assault plane crashed today, not far from Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma, where the sort is based as half of a partnership between the 492nd and 137th Special Operations Wings. Both crew members onboard — a contractor and an active-duty service member — weren’t injured in the incident, fortunately.

Images of the Skyraider II sitting broken in a discipline started circulating on social media this afternoon.

The Oklahoma Air National Guard says that the plane was out on a training mission when the incident occurred and that the circumstances are at present under investigation.

The OA-1K is model new to the USAF’s stock, with the sort fulfilling what is one thing of the ultimate end result of a long string of aborted necessities for a gentle assault plane specifically configured for low-intensity missions, such as counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. A synopsis of the OA-1K from a earlier TWZ article on its official naming will be read below:

The two-seat OA-1K can carry up to 6,000 kilos of munitions and other shops, including precision-guided missiles and bombs and podded sensor systems, on up to eight underwing pylons. L3Harris has beforehand said the plane can fly out to an space up to 200 miles away and loiter there for up to six hours with a typical fight load. They also have a “robust suite of radios and datalinks providing multiple means for line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications,” according to the company.

AFSOC at present plans to purchase 75 Skyraider IIs, with the first instance to be delivered this spring. The turboprop-powered OA-1K, a militarized by-product of the favored Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster, is a tail-dragging design just like the a lot bigger piston-engined Skyraider. The Skyraider II is set to be the first tail-dragging tactical fight plane anyplace in U.S. navy stock in many years.”

You can also try our exclusive tour of the plane in the video below:

It’s fairly potential the plane’s crop-duster roots helped keep the airframe and its crew intact when it got here down in the sector, as it’s constructed to operate from tough fields even in its suped-up navy configuration.

We will update this post with any new data that turns into accessible in the next 24 hours about the mishap.

Contact the writer: Tyler@twz.com