2025 B-1 Photos
When a B-1 Bomber crashed during landing at Ellsworth AFB last year, the accident board called on South Dakota Wing, Civil Air Patrol for fast-turnaround airborne photography of the accident site. CAP photography was included in the Air Force accident investigation report, showing the site and CAP’s rapid response capabilities.
“As the Air Force Auxiliary, CAP is always ready to support Air Force needs,” said Col. Mike Beason, CAP’s incident commander for the photography mission. “We moved quickly to launch a CAP aircraft with an airborne photographer and also a photography drone, as soon as the required Air Force and FAA permissions were received to fly over the base.”
Two photos by CAP were included in the final public accident investigation report. The first shows where the B-1 touched down short of the Ellsworth AFB runway, then skidded east onto the infield between two taxiways. The second is an aerial closeup of the aircraft. At the time, Col. Christopher Chandler, president of the safety investigation board, called the CAP photography, “not only pivotal, but groundbreaking for mishap analysis.”
The B-1 photography mission was one of four high-profile operational missions leading the state CAP organization to receive a rare CAP National Commander’s Unit Citation Award this spring.
The missions and resulting photography highlighted the flexibility of the Civil Air Patrol aerial and drone photography programs, which are key 21st century missions for Civil Air Patrol. South Dakota CAP members have photographed flooding for the state and FEMA, tornado damage for FEMA, and used aircraft and drone photography on missing persons searches over the last year. South Dakota Wing has also collected thousands of multispectral drone photographs for environmental researchers at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
South Dakota Wing has been a leader in CAP’s drone program since its inception. It was the first CAP wing to use a small remote-piloted photography drone on an actual missing person search and rescue mission in September 2019. The successful search was designated as a “Find” by the Air Force.
