Right here in Enid, Amer-ica, is a facility that does repair work for people all over the world.

Aircraft Structures, owned and operated by Enid’s Mickey Stowers and his wife, Kay, is in the business of repairing aircraft and currently is working on one important project.



Several months ago, Aircraft Structures received a damaged Cessna 208B in dire need of repair.

No sweat.

“We’re the world leader in rebuilding this particular type of aircraft,” said Stowers.



The flight report



This Cessna is part of an international organization that helps bring medical help to remote parts of Africa.

AMREF Flying Doctors has been in business since 1957 with a mission of helping people in rural areas where infrastructure and road networks are poor.

In video footage from Flying Doctors, co-founder Sir Michael Wood takes time to talk about his organization and how it came to be.

“We began to talk about the immensity of the problem of bringing health, particularly to rural areas,” said Wood. “One of the first answers should be in the form of communications and this, of course, meant the necessity of light aircraft.”

Cessnas have become the core of the Flying Doctors organization. In a place where between 70 percent and 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas a Cessna can make what was once a two-day trip into a 45-minute journey.



To the rescue



Now, Aircraft Structures is in the midst of repairing one of those life-saving planes that bring vaccinations as well as curative medicine to Africa. The planes double as an ambulance service.

“This particular aircraft,” said Stowers, “is out of Nai-robi, Kenya. They had a pi-lot over there that landed long.”

While no one was hurt in the rough landing that overshot the crude runway, the plane was damaged badly. Wings, landing gear and structural alignment were in need of expert repair before the plane could fly again.

Stowers said there is nowhere in the entire country of Kenya with the equipment to make these repairs, and that is how Enid’s Aircraft Structures came into the picture.

The crash occurred ap-proximately six months ago, and it took more than two months for the plane to be transported to Enid for repair.

With diligent work, the plane could be repaired in as little as four months, but things don’t always go smoothly.

“Sometimes you have to wait for parts,” said Stow-ers.

When the employees of Aircraft Structures are finished with the repairs, the plane will be as good as new.

“Our crew is highly skilled on this type of aircraft,” said Stowers.



Tales of the business



But, when the day comes that the plane flies out of Enid, the crew may have mixed feelings.

“It’s pretty neat when the crews work on something for so many months and then we watch it fly out and go across the world,” said Kay Stowers. “It’s emotional.”

Employees of Aircraft Structures not only get the thrill of watching a plane they repaired fly abroad but they also receive some planes with interesting stories.

• One plane rebuilt by Aircraft Structures crashed in a remote jungle, and the pilot hired a local tribe to pick up the plane and carry it out of the jungle into an open area.

• Another plane that arrived at the facility had to immediately be fumigated because it was infested with what Stowers called “weird bugs” foreign to the United States.

• And “Eureka!” may be the only appropriate statement to describe the plane that came in from the Putumayo River on the border of Columbia. The plane was filled with mud from the bed of the river and when the mud was cleaned out the plane was covered in gold dust.



First priority is the job



Aircraft Structures also purchases damaged planes and repairs them for sale. Although, that does not always go smoothly, either.

Stowers told the story of the time he purchased a damaged plane in Africa. Before the plane could be retrieved, some people in a helicopter attempted to steal the plane’s engine by lifting it with the helicopter. The theft was not successful, as the helicopter ended up crashing on top of the damaged plane.

Stowers decided not to retrieve that one.

With planes coming in from all over the world and going back out, Stowers is used to some strange situations, but his first priority is repairing the planes, which also is his expertise.

Stowers started taking aircraft mechanics at age 14 and studied the art in high school and college.

“My dad was in the Air Force,” said Stowers. “I was always around airplanes.”

Stowers even served as an aircraft mechanic in Viet-nam.

Aircraft Structures has been in Enid for 15 years and currently employs 28 people.