Three C-27J Spartans wait at the Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio on Saturday, November 3, 2012 to upload mission critical equipment in support of disaster relief from Hurricane Sandy. Cargo planes from Maryland, Mississippi and Ohio National Guard units transported electrical generators to be used in the New York City area. Photo Tech. Sgt. David Speicher
A cargo aircraft that the Air Force wants to kill is helping fly power generators and other equipment to New York as part of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, according to the Air National Guard.
Guard crews from Maryland, Ohio and Mississippi have been flying the C-27J, which can land on more airfields than the C-130, according to a news story from the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th Wing.
“It is really nice knowing that when flying the C-27J that if you have to get to the small airfields that the big planes can’t, you can provide the supplies for the people who need it,” Master Sgt. Matt Kerstetter, of the 135th Airlift Squadron, said in the news story.
Earlier this year, the Air Force sent all of the C-27J aircraft back to the United States as part of its effort to cancel the program, but Congress wants to keep the aircraft in service. In March, the Senate called the Air Force’s math into question when it asked the service to justify how it came up with the aircraft’s lifetime costs.
