F-22 Class A misshap at Tyndal AFB

An F-22 being flown by a student pilot on his second sortie suffered $2M in damage in an undisclosed incident. The pilot was transitioning to the Raptor from another type, and was flying last Thursday evening when the incident occured. He had completely simulator and academic work prior to flying. The life support system was NOT involved, the Air Force confirmed.

A Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor from Tyndall AFB, Florida, was damaged last Thursday evening during a training flight, the US Air Force confirms.

While the pilot is safe, the aircraft suffered more than $2 million in damage-which classifies the incident as a Class A mishap. The full extent and cost of the damage has yet to be determined, but the service expects that the aircraft will be repaired.

Source

reply to post by Zaphod58


I can imagine this isn't going to help the pilot's budding career any. I haven't heard of student pilot mishaps, Thanks for sharing.

In other words, he smashed the fudge out of the landing gear...

Could have been a malfunctioning altimeter. Or 2500 other mishaps..

The pilot was transitioning from F-16s, and was performing touch and gos when the incident happened. It's being classified as a ground accident. He was performing a touch and go, and made contact with the ground, is all I can find so far.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Ouch.
Well, maybe he can blame it on the O2 problem.

Considering that a class A is normally taken to mean a fatality, permanent disability, plane write-off or 2 million in damage they will either have to update the ratings or make a special one for a new generation of rather more expensive planes; 2 million dollars does not buy what it used to!

Stellar

reply to post by StellarX


The only reason that they increased it to $2M for a Class A is so that certain organizations could point to the safety record of their aircraft and say "Look! We went all year without a Class A mishap." (USMC V-22s) But ANY mishap involving a stealth is almost guaranteed to be a Class A mishap, regardless of what it is.

Per the Air Force (which only released the report because of a FOIA request), the student pilot, on his second flight after 10 simulator flights "failed to advance the throttles to military power, and prematurely retracted the landing gear, which allowed the aircraft to settle back onto the runway, where it eventually stopped" causing $35M in damage.

Originally posted by rbnhd76
In other words, he smashed the fudge out of the landing gear...

Could have been a malfunctioning altimeter. Or 2500 other mishaps..

That's what I was thinking, or perhaps hit another aircraft on the runway or tarmac. It was almost assuredly something that happened on the ground, or otherwise the plane would have been a total loss. Anything that happens on the ground is pilot error. Poor kid. Looks like he'll be flying C-130's in the Congo for the rest of his career, LOL!

reply to post by darkhorserider


He probably won't even be doing that much. Usually when something like this happens, they transfer to Maintenance or Ops, or something along those lines.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I was second-guessing my reply as soon as I posted it. From what my Airforce buddies have said in the past. Flying a C-130 takes one of the more skillful pilots. Short takeoff and runway zones, heavy loads, and less than ideal conditions are the norm for the C-130 crews.

In fact, a pilot once told me that the best pilots with the best physiologies get the fast and most maneuverable fighter jets. The best pilots, with less favorable physiologies get the C-130's and other slower, yet difficult platforms to fly, and often times some of the worst pilots end up in some of the coolest long-range aircraft like the B2 and and other bombers. Those are usually long-term, boring, uneventful flights, with larger crews handling the targeting and bombing runs, and they don't require the skill level of a guy landing a huge cargo plane on a dirt strip in Africa.

Seems kind of unfair, but I see the logic behind it. Have you heard anything like that?

reply to post by darkhorserider


I hadn't actually heard that, but it made perfect sense once I read it. The most stressful thing a B-2 pilot should have to deal with is flying around storms, taking off, and landing. I've always said that C-130 pilots are some of the best pilots I've seen though.