SEATTLE — With the Tom Hanks movie, “Captain Phillips,” now a nominee for the Motion Picture Academy’s Best Picture award, on Jan. 25 visitors to the Museum of Flight can get a behind-the-scenes look at the real story from someone who participated in the Navy rescue operation of Capt. Phillips depicted in the film. Museum visitors can also see on exhibit the actual ScanEagle drone and Navy sniper bullets used in the rescue of Capt. Phillips.
Pilot Andrew Lohmar led the team in control of the museum’s ScanEagle drone during the 2009 Navy rescue mission of MV Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips.
On Jan. 25 at 2:30 p.m., Lohmar will talk about the rescue mission and drone operations. The program is free with admission to the museum.
A Boeing employee since 2005, Lohmar joined the company’s Flight Operations Department in 2006 as a Light Aircraft Support pilot where he was assigned to the ScanEagle Program as a Site Lead, and served in this role through 2011.
His first deployment was to southern Iraq to support the U.S. Navy, where he led a two-site operation to provide aerial surveillance and security to the Iraqi Oil Platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf. In 2008, he led a ScanEagle team onboard the USS Oak Hill, that deployed to the Gulf of Oman with a primary mission of pirate and smuggling interdiction. In 2009 he lead a team onboard the USS Bainbridge in response to the Maersk Alabama hostage incident.
In 2010 and again in 2011, Lohman supported a new division within Boeing called Network Tactical- Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). NT-ISR was formed to develop manned ISR assets as well as integrate cutting edge payloads into Boeing’s existing aerial system. Throughout 2010-2011, Lohman was also deployed several times to Northern Iraq with ScanEagle to support the Special Operations Command. He now manages a new Engineering Integrations group supporting Boeing’s Wide Body Delivery Center in Everett.
A historic ScanEagle drone aircraft used in a widely publicized hostage rescue mission — and the subject of the major motion picture, “Captain Phillips” — is on permanent exhibit at The Museum of Flight. The 44 lb. aircraft is displayed with the three shell casings from the Navy sniper bullets used to kill Capt. Richard Phillips’ captors.