New egress facility increases production capabilities, compliance

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stephen Linch
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The 48th Component Maintenance Squadron egress section officially opened for business at their new facility during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 5.

The section, which maintains egress equipment such as ejection seats, moved to the larger facility and is looking forward to increased production.

"We never had a problem with the manning, but the actual space constraints we had limited the amount of seats that we could turn," said Master Sgt. David Willaman, 48th CMS accessories flight maintenance superintendent and native of Mooresville, Ind. "With this new facility, we went from being able to work on four seats to ... being able to work on 10 ejection seats at a time. "

The change of facilities not only allowed for an increase in production capability, but also addressed safety concerns.

"This actual move over into this building has alleviated some of the safety concerns that we had back at our other building as well as providing a safer environment," said Willaman.

The move to the new building brought various safety issues into compliance, which was necessary and handled appropriately, said Maj. Ron Llantada, 48th CMS commander and native of Virginia Beach, Va.

"Today signified a time where we drove change starting not from the leadership perspective but from the Airman and Senior NCO perspective," Llantada said. "This move is an example of one of my squadron's themes, Operation ENDURING COMPLIANCE, which resonates in all levels of my squadron. They identified that we were out of compliance in terms of safe distances between inhabited buildings and buildings where we have a process of maintaining hazardous class division 1.3, which are explosive systems that power the egress system."

"Since they deal with explosives, it is paramount that they make sure that they are always in compliance with existing instructions," he added.

According to Willaman, the new facility is going to be a safe and good home for the egress section.

"It gives them more space to be able to accomplish their maintenance," he said."There is more order and organization, which actually makes their job easier."