Rescue in the clouds: Navy instructor pilots, student aviators help civilian aircraft land

​Around 1:40 p.m., Corpus Christi International Airport air traffic control received a distress call from a privately owned Piper-Cherokee aircraft saying they were above the clouds and unable to navigate through them to land safely, a news release from the Chief of Naval Air Training said.
Nearby pilots conducting a formation training in two T-6B Texan II training aircrafts over the Corpus Christi Bay were able to find a clear area for the Piper-Cherokee to get below the clouds. They then guided the aircraft to the opening in the clouds about six miles north of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, where the pilot was able to land at the Mustang Beach Airport.

The Navy pilots flying the two T-6Bs were Lt. Cmd David Indiveri of Succasunna, New Jersey; Maine 1st Lt. Casey Joehnk of Port Orchard, Washington; Lt. Billy Morse of Tucson, Arizona; and Ensign Christophe Theodore of San Francisco, California, the release said. Theodore is a student pilot only two flights away from completing his primary flight training.
“While our primary role here is training future Naval Aviators, when emergencies arise, our pilots stand ready to answer the call,” Cmdr. Brian Higgins, commanding officer of VT-28 said in the release.


On. Nov. 15, pilots in the squadron helped search for and rescue a civilian pilot after a crash landing in Rockport.
“This is the second time in less than a month that our crews have answered that call to assist pilots in distress and potentially saved the lives of our fellow civilian aviators who share these skies with us every day. I am extremely proud of the Ranger flight crews and am glad they were the ones who got the call, because true to our squadron motto, 'Rangers Lead the Way.'"