Gulf War Battle Damage

OA-10 77-0197 (Destroyed)

OA-10A 77-0197, 23rd TASS/602nd TACW.  Reconnaissance mission over Kuwait 27 Feb 1991, call sign NAIL 51.  Aircraft had been hit by surface-to-air missile and was attempting a landing at KKMC FOL in Manual Reversion after loosing all its hydraulics, in extreme weather conditions and with only one engine.  On landing aircraft hit a little short, on the soft overrun where the gear sunk into the ground and sheared off.  The aircraft started sliding and turned a little sideways when the left wing started gaining lift and the aircraft became airborne again, almost 50 feet airborne.  The left wing kept getting lift and the plane rolled inverted until it cart wheeled wingtip over wingtip flipped over on to its back killing the pilot Lt Patrick Olson (posthumously promoted to Captain).  With the aircraft inverted there was no chance of ejection [source].  There was nothing left of the aircraft.  The remains of the aircraft were buried at the FOL.

77-0197's wreckage is in the pit before being buried in the Saudi desert.  The aircraft on the sling being added into the pit is A-10 79-0181.

Help remember Lt Patrick Olson, an A-10 pilot lost in Desert Storm

Lt Olson had been victim of another battle damage in an A-10 on 14 Feb just days before this fatal day.  On a low-level mission
on Feb. 14, 1991, Olson’s OA-10 was hit by a bullet that struck the lower left-hand part of his canopy and and bounced off. Uncertain if his plane had suffered serious damage he headed for home and landed safely.  My ABDR team and I scratched our heads trying how the bullet had gouged out a messy dent in the fuselage only 2 feet from Olson’s head and didn't hurt him.  Luck was on his side that day.