Alaska military base says F-22 fighter overdue

Alaska military base says F-22 fighter overdue

www.washingtonpost.com

The jet, with one pilot aboard, was on a training mission out of the base and lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time

(visit the link for the full news article)

Hmmm . . . how do you lose one of these. If it went down, they'd be able to track that pretty much immediately.

Maybe it was snatched or 'delivered' elsewhere?

Wonder if it was 'armed'. These things carry six AIM-120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles which could be used for a whole range of nasty things if they fell into the wrong hands.

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by GoalPoster


Check the Bush ranch..Bush, Rummy and Cheney are probably rubbing their hands together planning what to do with them babies..

But you're right...How the heck do you loose one of them??
I thought NORAD said they know where every 2" bit of metal is flying at all times..

S&F and worth watching...

A training mission eh? From Anchorage to where, I wonder.

This is quite strange, worrying even, not least for the family of the pilot. At best, it is a major embarrassment.

Originally posted by GoalPoster

Hmmm . . . how do you lose one of these. If it went down, they'd be able to track that pretty much immediately.

Maybe it did go down and they're just not releasing that information yet?

Here's the accident report on one that crashed last year:

F-22 accident report

The gist of that story is the pilot pushed it a little too hard and blacked out and by the time he regained consciousness, he realized he was about to crash and ejected but the ejection killed him.

I guess this is why future planes may be pilotless, the guy on the ground moving the joystick won't black out in high-G maneuvers.

It will be interesting to see what happened in this latest incident though.

""At best, it is a major embarrassment.""

The F-22's were a major embarrassment when we deployed them into the Pacific Ocean and all their computers crashed when they reached the International Date Line and they had to find Hawaii by luck and dead reckoning.

Our reliance on technology is out of hand. Our pilots no longer fly planes. They merely place their vote on what the plane should do and the computer decides what the plane does.

Other countries that have not adopted Fly-by-Wire have superior military aircraft. Their pilots still control the airframes.

We don't.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by GoalPoster

 

Check the Bush ranch..Bush, Rummy and Cheney are probably rubbing their hands together planning what to do with them babies..

What??? Where did that comment come from?
Now to get back on track (no pun intended).
The F-22 from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson "lost contact with air traffic control" last night at 7:40 pm (0440 GMT) "while on a routine training mission."
Add to this, just a few months ago, a C-17 strategic transport from the USAF’s 3rd Wing crashed at Elmendorf-Richardson AFB, killing all four crew members. It make you wonder if HAARP or something Chinese/Russian is going on.

Wonder if the F-22 pilot defected to China or Russia?? That would explain why they can't find him. Maybe he shut off all comms, flew low to the deck, and flew to a foreign country. He would be well taken care of by the host country for the gift.

With all the satellite communications, live locations, etc., the search shouldn't take very long at all. They would have a very good idea of the general area the aircraft crashed if it did indeed go down.

This other possibility....Wonder if the F-22 tried to engage a UFO? Okay, I'll go with my first guess.

Our reliance on technology is out of hand. Our pilots no longer fly planes. They merely place their vote on what the plane should do and the computer decides what the plane does.

Kinda sounds like how our country is ran nowadays...

It would seem that the popular belief right now is that the plane crashed somewhere in Alaska (according to the most recent reports) www.adn.com...

It's strange that they are reporting that the plane is "missing". Don't all Air Force craft have some kind of tracking device so that they can easily be found in such situations? If the pilot had to eject, wouldn't he or she also use some kind of locating device to help with the rescue effort? High strangeness…

Originally posted by synchro
It's strange that they are reporting that the plane is "missing". Don't all Air Force craft have some kind of tracking device so that they can easily be found in such situations? If the pilot had to eject, wouldn't he or she also use some kind of locating device to help with the rescue effort? High strangeness…

I know I've read about ejected pilots using tracking devices to help them get located but I'm not sure if the pilot doesn't eject. I suspect they can still track it but may not want to publicize that fact for various reasons (like to prevent enemy recovery of a crash before friendly recovery perhaps? Just guessing).

The aircraft have an emergency locator beacon, depending upon the condition of the crash site this may or may not be operational. But first and foremost, let's hope the pilot an American service member is alive. He did not defect to China, HARRP did not cause the plane to crash.

As advanced as our aircraft our, they still fly low level manuevers and experience mechanical difficulities which lead to crashes. As well as the fact that Alaska is a harsh environment.

And to the chap that asked what was an F-22 doing flying a routine training mission in Alaska. Well Sarah Palin can see Russia out her window...get the gist. There still is a game of dodge going on with Russia daily, even in Europe..doesn't make the news but we are there doing the job.

I hope it isn't true, but my guess would be that the aircraft and a mountain met and the mountain won.

Originally posted by synchro
It would seem that the popular belief right now is that the plane crashed somewhere in Alaska (according to the most recent reports) www.adn.com...

It's strange that they are reporting that the plane is "missing". Don't all Air Force craft have some kind of tracking device so that they can easily be found in such situations? If the pilot had to eject, wouldn't he or she also use some kind of locating device to help with the rescue effort? High strangeness…

Your thinking of an ELT, and in a high gee enough crash they will stop working. I had a family member killed in a small commercial plane that the ELT disintigrated on impact and it tooks weeks to find the wreckage where it went down. They report the plane missing until they have proof it crashed. In my personal case they listed the plane as missing until someone found the wreckage.