Plane popular choice

CLOVIS - For anybody wondering about the military plane involved in Tuesday night's fatal crash near Clovis Municipal Airport, many answers can be found from booking a commercial flight at Clovis Municipal Airport.

In military terms, the plane involved in the crash that killed three still-unnamed Cannon personnel is a U-28. For some Clovis residents, it is known as a Pilatus PC-12 flown by Boutique Airlines.

The aircraft is the top-selling pressurized, single-engine plane in the world - with more than 1,400 produced since its first flight in May 1991 and commercial introduction three years later - because it does the job safely much more often than not.

"The U-28 aircraft is a reliable, safely-performing airplane that we fly thousands of hours on," 27th Special Operations Wing Commander Col. Ben Maitre said Wednesday morning, "and every year our air crews fly hundreds of hours to maintain their currency and proficiency. This is the first mishap in quite some time."

Whether as a PC-12 or U-28, the aircraft is produced by Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft Ltd.

Clovis' Carlos Arias, former manager for Blue Sky Aviation, serviced the plane in both its commercial flights and its training missions.

"It is the same exact aircraft," Arias said. "The difference is the technical equipment on the inside. From outward appearance, they're identical to the PC-12."

For passengers booking flights through Boutique, they can travel back and forth to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with eight seats available.

Michelle McNulty, marketing community manager for Boutique, said the company has about 18 PC-12s in service to 25 airports. The plane is no small reason Boutique has grown since it first became an Essential Air Service carrier to Clovis in the summer of 2014.

"It's extremely comfortable for our passengers," McNulty said. "It flies above the weather, which a lot of our competitors aren't able to do. It's a smooth flight."

For military use, there's less passenger room and more mission capability.

"The Pilatus U-28 aircraft is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform," Maitre said. "It's single-engine, with a crew of three to four personnel that performs on station reconnaissance missions, both for training here in the United States and we deploy them overseas on contingency operations as well. "

The U-28 was initially used for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and has a range of 1,500 nautical miles (1,726 miles). They can travel as fast as 270 knots - about 310.7 mph.