Had Landed At Former Brunswick, ME Naval Air Station

A Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet that had just landed at the former Brunswick, ME Naval Air Station Thursday skidded off the runway as it taxied to the ramp, but the airplane was undamaged.

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Corrie Mays, one of the two pilots on board the aircraft, told the Press Herald newspaper that the incident was "nothing significant. We just slipped off the runway a little bit down there. The jet is in perfectly good condition."

The Blue Angels are scheduled to perform in Brunswick next September at the Great State of Maine Airshow. The airplane was in Brunswick as part of an advanced logistics trip to the airport.

Mays said the plane wound up in a grassy area after ice on the runway prevented the plane from coming to a complete stop as it taxied. “With a small amount of runway left when we started experiencing that, we didn’t have the option of take-off either,” Mays said during a media briefing for members of the press who had come to the airport to watch the jet land. “So our training kicked in at that point. . . . We did the best we could. And the jet is safe and we are safe, so it worked out.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.blueangels.navy.mil/show