In Washington, military officials said Wednesday they had deployed an atmospheric detection aircraft, the WC-135W Constant Phoenix, to assist in detecting radioactive materials in the atmosphere around Japan. The plane, normally based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, was moved Tuesday to Eielson Air Force Base, the officials said. U.S. Air Force photo
The U.S. Pacific Command requested a WC-135 on March 15 as a “prudent measure to support possible contingencies,” Air Force spokesman Srgt. James Stewart wrote in an email. The aircraft will support U.S. humanitarian operations in Japan. Its stay at Eielson is temporary, he said.
More details about the plane’s operation in Japan were not available, Stewart said.
The Air Force has two active WC-135 aircraft, which are stationed out of Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska. The size of the plane’s crew is determined by the size of its mission, according to the Air Force. The aircraft’s listed elevation ceiling is 40,000 feet.
The WC-135 is about the size of the Boeing-707 jet airliner. It has an atmospheric collection suite that allows crews “to detect radioactive ‘clouds’ in real time,” according to the Air Force.
The aircraft is part of the Constant Phoenix program formed in 1947. An earlier Constant Phoenix aircraft flying between Alaska and Japan detected nuclear debris from Russia’s first atomic test in 1949. Constant Phoenix aircraft also “played a major role in tracking radioactive debris” after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in present-day Ukraine, according to the Air Force.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week the Air Force has flown a drone aircraft and a U2 spy plane over the Fukishima plant to get a first-hand assessment of the damage.
The Fukisima power plant began experiencing a series of equipment failures and radiation leaks last week after the plant was flooded from tsunami waves triggered by the March 11 earthquake off the east coast of Japan.
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