Air Force to Land Planes on Northern Michigan Highway

Yep, you read that right. The Air Force will be landing planes on a Michigan highway.

Coming up in August, the United States Air Force will be conducting drills, which are part of the Northern Strike war-readiness exercise. As part of the drills, pilots will partake in training that will teach them to land on civilian roadways.

These exercises will take place near the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena County. On Thursday, August 5th, a portion of M-32 will be closed from 8 am until 1 pm from east of Herron Road to west of King Settlement Road. During the exercises, Airmen will try to land two C-146 aircraft and four A-10 aircraft on the highway. As cool as it would be to see, officials have stated that civilians should not gather near the closed roadways or the landing zones.

Get our free mobile app

The units that will be participating in the exercise will include the Michigan Air National Guard 127th Wing out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the Air Force's 355th Wing out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, and the Air Force Special Operations Command out of Duke Field in Florida.

Northern Strike has been hosted by the Michigan National Guard since 2012. It's a yearly training exercise that simulates situations that may happen in wartime situations. During these exercises, units from different branches, and sometimes different countries, work together to complete the scenarios.

Having grown up near Selfridge Air National Guard Base, I've always wondered what it would look like if they did land on the road. We would routinely see massive military planes flying really low to the ground.

Source: MLive