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8 8 e evening of Jan. 23, 2024, at approximately 7 p.m., ASTRA81, a K35R from Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) (SKA) attempted to land at McConnell AFB (IAB) located on the southeast side of Wichita. ASTRA81 made several attempts on IAB's Instrument Landing System (ILS) 01L approach, but all were unsuccessful. e crew, believing an equipment failure at IAB was to blame, decided to divert to Wichita Airport (ICT) and try the ILS 01L approach there. However, ICT also had particularly low ceilings of 200 feet and half mile visibility. e conditions were so poor, the ground was not visible from the cab at ICT. ASTRA81 checked in with Tyler Spencer at Wichita Approach and stated they had only 30 minutes of fuel remaining. Hearing this, Tyler declared an emergency. As ASTRA81 continued to receive vectors, they were unable to receive the ILS. Tyler quickly switched them to the RNAV 01L, issued their approach clearance, then switched them to newly certi ed controller William Wytt in ICT Tower. As ASTRA81 relayed information to William, it became clear that they were unaware of their position, so William decided to issue climb out instructions and handed them back o to approach for another attempt. Cameron Haynes, who was in charge in the tower, was relieved from position and headed straight for the TRACON to be of further assistance there. Allison Healy and Cody Wilkerson searched for airports within 100 miles that had better weather conditions. As Tyler recounts, "…everybody upstairs was doing anything and everything , coming up with ideas, looking up airports, trying to get a hold of another tanker." Unfortunately, ASTRA81 was unable to accept airborne refueling. ASTRA81's next attempt was unsuccessful. ey were unable to get stabilized on the approach despite William issuing them mileage o the centerline, with guidance from Tony DeHaven who drew from his military experience with surveillance approaches. Tyler recounted, "it came to a point, a er the second attempt, where I thought if he's going to crash, we want him to crash close to the runways because it's such a CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL REGION Wri en by Bryan Mar ni (Sioux City ATCT, SUX) Anthony DeHaven Wichita ATCT ICT Cameron Haynes Wichita ATCT ICT Allison Healey Wichita ATCT ICT

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