MCAS Beaufort F-35B suffers in flight fire

An F-35B from MCAS Beaufort in South Carolina, belonging to VMFA-501 suffered a small fire in the weapons bay during a training flight on October 27th. The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot wasn't injured. The Marines are listing the accident as a Class A mishap, which means the aircraft suffered more than $2M in damage. The squadron has continued operations since the fire.

The Marine Corps is investigating after an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter based out of Beaufort, South Carolina, recently caught fire in mid-air, Military.com has learned.

The incident happened Oct. 27 at Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, a fleet replacement squadron for the Marine Corps consisting of 20 F-35B aircraft. One of the aircraft experienced a fire in the weapons bay while conducting a training mission over Beaufort, 1st Lt. John Roberts, a spokesman for 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, told Military.com.

"The aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries sustained," he said. "An investigation is ongoing and we will provide updates as they are available."

No estimate of damage caused by the fire was available. The incident was listed by the Naval Safety Center as a Class A mishap, meaning damage totalled $2 million or more on the $100 million aircraft.

www.military.com...

This makes three fires on the aircraft, but considering how many are flying and how many hours they're flying, this is still a fairly minor incident in the grand scheme of things. But they need to figure out the cause fast, and determine if it's a production related issue, or maintenance related.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
An F-35B from MCAS Beaufort in South Carolina, belonging to VMFA-501 suffered a small fire in the weapons bay during a training flight on October 27th. The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot wasn't injured. The Marines are listing the accident as a Class A mishap, which means the aircraft suffered more than $2M in damage. The squadron has continued operations since the fire.

The Marine Corps is investigating after an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter based out of Beaufort, South Carolina, recently caught fire in mid-air, Military.com has learned.

The incident happened Oct. 27 at Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, a fleet replacement squadron for the Marine Corps consisting of 20 F-35B aircraft. One of the aircraft experienced a fire in the weapons bay while conducting a training mission over Beaufort, 1st Lt. John Roberts, a spokesman for 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, told Military.com.

"The aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries sustained," he said. "An investigation is ongoing and we will provide updates as they are available."

No estimate of damage caused by the fire was available. The incident was listed by the Naval Safety Center as a Class A mishap, meaning damage totalled $2 million or more on the $100 million aircraft.

www.military.com...

This makes three fires on the aircraft, but considering how many are flying and how many hours they're flying, this is still a fairly minor incident in the grand scheme of things. But they need to figure out the cause fast, and determine if it's a production related issue, or maintenance related.

The more complex anything mechanical gets, the more teething problems there are. At least one doesn't have to remove a wing to change out the engine, like the Harrier, or does one?

a reply to: pteridine

No, engine changes are pretty standard on this one. The lift fan is a bit of a pain in the ass, but still not as bad as the Harrier.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: pteridine

No, engine changes are pretty standard on this one. The lift fan is a bit of a pain in the ass, but still not as bad as the Harrier.

When visiting MCAS Cherry Point in a previous life, I was with the maintenance boss when some hapless team had just replaced the engine and wing and was short one fastener. They were told that practice makes perfect and got to do it again. It was a long job on the book and that command did everything bookish.

a reply to: pteridine

We lucked out with all the Harriers going through and only had one ever have to have an engine change. That's one job you couldn't pay me enough to help with. Jesus that was nasty to watch.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: pteridine

We lucked out with all the Harriers going through and only had one ever have to have an engine change. That's one job you couldn't pay me enough to help with. Jesus that was nasty to watch.

It was.
The Cherry Point visit was for other reasons; my era is the F4, A6, A7, A4, and my favorite, the beautiful RA-5c Vigilante. You could cut yourself on the leading edges.
The F4's were the hot number. Engine change on the book was 4 hours. In a screaming emergency, the book was "lost" and one team did a complete change in 20 minutes [not counting balance] on a plane that CASREPT the starboard engine after running at gate too long.

a reply to: pteridine

We helped with a bunch of B-1 removals to replace blades, and one full change. Took about 3 hours, with a few extra minutes for the run, but they did most of the checks while doing nav alignment before departure.

Geez, Weapons Bay fire. You think it's the motors in there spooling/overheating? Those weapons racks, I"m guessing have electric motors that turn the launching weapon into position, no?

Just seems a little odd for a fire location. I don't know how it CAN'T be electrical.

a reply to: cosmania

I don't either, unless there's a bleed air duct through there that overheated something and it ignited.

I would give good odds that if the Harrier was american designed,American built, it would be praised as the best thing since money was invented...

The pilot received a warning for a fire in the right hand weapons bay, followed immediately by a failure warning for the Honeywell Integrated Power Package (IPP) and a hydraulic failure warning. The aircraft was in the landing pattern when it happened. This marks the second IPP related fire, after a fire in an F-35A grounded the fleet in 2011.

www.flightglobal.com...

A previously identified loose bracket in the weapons bay allowed wiring to chafe, and eventually spark near a hydraulic line in the weapons bay. The Marines had identified the bracket issue and have a redesigned bracket to replace the current one, but this aircraft hadn't been refitted at the time.

www.flightglobal.com...

Seems interesting that just a chafed wire ignited a hydraulic line that wasn't leaking. I've been around a lot of sketchy electrical and hydraulic systems between farming and the fire department, and I've never heard of that.

I suppose it could have had a huge fuse and heated up the bracket if the hydraulic line was touching it as well and melted the hose. I'd be interest to see a picture of it.

a reply to: LeviB

If the line went through the bracket too, then it could have been damaged before the wiring chafed through.

That's true. If the line rubbed through to the wire it could have heated enough to ignite the fluid. That would still take a huge amount of amperage though. I'll definitely stay tuned to this.