Wildfire affects flying, everyday operations at Moody

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Brigitte N. Brantley-Sisk
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Although weather conditions may occasionally alter flight operations, it's not usually for a prolonged period of time.

However, the 5,000-acre swamp wildfire in Clinch County, Ga., has been burning for more than a week and is why many of Moody Air Force Base's flying operations have been cancelled.
One of the first cancellations was Nov. 13, when some of the aerial acts for the Community Appreciation Day Air Show were unable to safely fly due to reduced visibility. The latest cancellations were Nov. 19.

"We cancelled all 16 of the A-10C Thunderbolt II sorties that were scheduled for today," said Lt. Col. James Clark, 74th Fighter Squadron commander. "These sorties included practice flights for the A-10 East Demonstration Team, local area orientation flights for new pilots and even air refueling training we had with an Air National Guard unit."

The call was made when visibility was as low as one-quarter to one-half of a mile. Pilots cannot fly when visibility is low because of safety issues, including their inability to see their environment as well as other aircraft.

Although the smoke impaired flying operations, not a single related safety incident has been reported to the 23rd Wing Safety Office.

"Because of the conditions, we just want to stress that everybody remain safe," said Trey Rowe, 23rd WG SO occupations safety and health specialist. "While driving, remember to use your fog lights but not your high beams. We haven't had any incidents and we would like to keep it that way."

In addition to no incidents, there also isn't an expectation the smoke will impair the safety of anybody's health.

"Because it's a swamp, the burning matter comprises trees and other plant matter," said 1st Lt. Michael Schmidt, 23rd Medical Group bioenvironmental engineer officer. "Although the smoke is thick, there's no anticipated health effect since the material that's burning isn't dangerous."