B-2 crash near Guam? (Update: Post Crash Pics & Video)

reply to post by Harlequin


Some awesome shots their Har good find! Thanks for sharing.

Any one hear rumors of when we will get some more press releases on findings yet? we much be getting close to the 30 days if not past so when to expect them.

I guess the Serbs really did shot the B2, it only took several years to crash

Pardon me for being so curious Cool Hand, weren't you posting on GFaqs at one point, specifically the WoT board? It is sure not the most uncommon of screen names possible, yet I can't help but wonder (and unfortunately cannot use u2u at this point). Apologies in advance for this somewhat unrelated matter.

reply to post by Canada_EH


The latest releases have all dealt with the Safety Pause. The AIB has until next month to release their report.

[edit on 4/13/2008 by Zaphod58]

Current Status of the B-2 Fleet- ACC Release



SPRITS SOAR ONCE AGAIN

The AIB report is not expected to be complete until June or July, and it WILL be publicly released. I'll keep my ears to the ground for any leaks on it, and see what I can find out.

[edit on 28-4-2008 by Zoron]

Crash cause identified?

The skin-flush sensors, which collect information about air pressure and density, much like a pitot tube on a conventional aircraft, provide angle-of-attack and yaw data to the B-2’s computerized flight control system. After heavy, lashing rains, water got into the sensors and caused them to give faulty readings to the flight control system, the official said. As a result, the aircraft’s computers determined—based on the bogus data—that the aircraft was in an improper attitude and corrected automatically. The B-2 made a sudden pitch-up and yaw that was not commanded by the pilot. The aircraft quickly stalled, became unrecoverable, and the crew of two ejected.

www.airforce-magazine.com...

[edit on 29/5/2008 by C0bzz]

WEll if the info given just after where you ended the quote is right and they are looking at ways to better seal the sensors it is safe to bet that they where at least part of the issues identified during the investigation. If when the full report is given soon (as "hinted too) and if it is the only issue on the list I would be surprised.

Oh and to clarify for readers these skin-flush sensors that provide flight data for the B-2 are basically performing the role of pitot and static systems on a conventional aircraft.

Here is the Release
www.acc.af.mil...

Here's the link to the findings page including video of the crash and lot's of other information
www.acc.af.mil...

reply to post by CDRGuy


Great find... thanks for posting it.

That looks very very scary.

www.flightglobal.com...

Moist air most likely caused the US Air Force to lose one of its prized Northrop Grumman B-2 bombers earlier this year, a loss calculated at $1.4 billion, the US Air Force reported on 5 June.

During a takeoff on a Guam runway on 23 February, moisture contamination on the fly-by-wire B-2’s air data sensors threw off the tailless bomber’s sensitive flight control system. (See video of the crash here.)

so it crashed because of the `wrong type of air`......

www.flightglobal.com...

video of crash - sorry but thats a stall with partial recovery - moisture my ass.

Yeah, they did stall. Because during preflight, they failed to heat the pitot tube to clear water out of it. When the moisture was forced through the system during calibration it got a bad value. During take off they thought they were faster than they were, lifted off 1500 feet too early, and the plane pitched them up into a 1.6G 30 degree climb, which led to the stall. The wingtip then scraped the ground, and both crew members ejected.

Has this been posted before?

video of the crash ( at 1min 40 secs)

www.liveleak.com...

reply to post by Floyd_pinkerton


Did you read the last 4 posts???

sorry. i am a bit stupid.

New video posted by the woracle on youtube showing a CG version as well as clip shot by crew on the flight line.

This is edited together from US Air Force video and reconstruction animation of the Northrop Grumman B-2 crash at Guam on February 23, 2008. The crash was caused by moisture in the air-data pressure sensors - a known problem, with a known fix that was never written down

From the video info it is clear from what is presented that there was obvious fighting of uncontrolled movement by the pilot. Hard to tell from the quality how hard of a pull up/rotation was done by the pilot and if it is his controls we see or computer inputs as well.

reply to post by Floyd_pinkerton


Actually after reading this whole thread, the canadien is smarter and better than everyone So its ok man.