Congress losing patience with OBOGS issues

Congress is getting fed up with the excuses for the ongoing OBOGS problems. At a hearing in front of the House Armed Services Committee, testifying on the T-6 Texan II grounding that's been ongoing since Feb 1st, Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland said that the Air Force believes it's a maintenance issue. He said that the Air Force hasn't trained maintenance properly to maintain the equipment. Rep. Michael Turner wasn't happy with that suggestion.

“I could not be more disappointed by your presentation,” Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, said after Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland finished his opening statement. “There is something wrong with the systems that these pilots are relying on for their lives.”

“Should we start doing hearing training where we ask you to come before us and then let’s have you hold your breath for a minute in the first hearing, and then in the second hearing we’ll have you hold your breath for two minutes?” Turner said. “It makes no sense.”

www.militarytimes.com...

The Texan was grounded for the second time in recent months, after having 13 hypoxia like events in one week. They are looking at several ways around the problem until a root cause is found.

Meanwhile on the Navy side, HASC has said the Navy isn't moving fast enough to fix the problem. There have been several hearings since the April grounding of the T-45C, when instructors refused to fly due to the steep increase in PE events. Nothing has been solved in that time though. A report completed by NASA was critical of the Navy in trying to find a problem with the aircraft involved, and not getting the Navy medical personnel involved in trying to figure out what is happening.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy isn’t moving fast enough to fix the ongoing systemic physiological episodes that have plagued fighter pilots and flight students, members of the House Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday.

The number of physiological episodes suffered by pilots has been on the rise over the last ten years, and the Navy was forced to deal with the issue in April 2017, when a group of more than 100 Navy pilot instructors refused to fly the T-45C Goshawk trainer aircraft due to safety concerns.

Since then, the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee has held several hearings but remains dissatisfied with the progress on solving the PE problem, chairman Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said on Tuesday.

“This has got to be fixed. I don’t have confidence that we’re getting nearer to that,” Turner said.
“This would seem to be something that needs to be done quickly and expeditiously. This should not be a research project. This should be a fix-it project.”

news.usni.org...

they need to bring in the private company that did the work and threaten them with jail time....response might be faster

If it was training it would have presented itself years ago..