Zitat

11/17/2010 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON -- An Air Force F-22 assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time today while on a routine training mission.
A search is underway.
More information will be released as it becomes available.

Zitat

Die US Air Force hat möglicherweise eines ihrer modernsten - und teuersten - Kampfflugzeuge verloren. Bei einem Trainingsflug über Alaska brach der Kontakt zwischen der F-22 Raptor und der Flugaufsicht ab. Der Kampfjet wird gesucht.
Eines der neuesten Jagd- und Kampfflugzeuge der US-Luftwaffe vom Typ F-22 Raptor ist möglicherweise abgestürzt. Das Flugzeug befand sich auf einem Trainingsflug über Alaska, als der Kontakt zur Luftaufsicht gegen 19:40 Uhr Ortszeit abbrach. Laut einer sehr knappen Meldung des US-Luftwaffenstützpunktes Elmendorf-Richardson wurde eine Suche nach dem Kampfjet gestartet.

Zitat

Apparent wreckage of Air Force fighter jet found
Search and rescue teams on Wednesday spotted what appears to be the wreckage of an Air Force fighter jet that went missing during a nighttime training mission over Alaska, officials said.
The fate of the pilot, whose name has not been released, remained uncertain, and Air Force officials held out hope that he might have survived.

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor disappeared from radar as the aircraft and another jet were heading back to base at about 7:40 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The pilot of the second plane searched Tuesday night for the missing jet without success.
The probable crash site was spotted Wednesday morning about 100 miles (160 km) north of Anchorage by an Alaska National Guard helicopter crew, said Colonel Jack McMullen, commander of the Air Force 3rd Wing.
The National Guard crew was unable to land, but a second helicopter team was en route and attempting to land, he told reporters at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
"We have not confirmed that he is with the plane," McMullen said of the pilot. "We're going to continue looking for him until we have confirmation."
He added that the pilot was "arctic trained" to survive in the harsh climate. "He's got the gear on. He's got stuff in his survival kit so that he can hunker himself down."

Zitat

Memorial Monday for pilot killed in jet crash
A memorial is planned Monday for the pilot who died when his F-22 Raptor crashed in a valley between two mountains after vanishing from radar on a nighttime training flight last week, military officials said Saturday.
The announcement came as hundreds of Army and Air Force personnel continued Saturday to comb the crash area off the Denali Highway in Interior Alaska to find Capt. Jeffrey Haney's remains, recover pieces of the stealth fighter jet and try to find out why it went down.
At the family's request, only personnel from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and some friends from the local community will attend the memorial, scheduled for 3:25 p.m. at Hangar One on base.
Investigators planned to be at the crash site, east of the Susitna River and south of the Denali Highway. The search and recovery efforts are based at the previously shuttered Susitna Lodge about two miles east of a bridge over the Upper Susitna, said John Pennell, a military spokesman in the base's emergency operations center.
Searchers had set up warming tents with heaters, as the temperatures had dipped near 25 below zero overnight, Pennell said.
"Essentially, we're building a forward operating base to continue recovery operations," he said.
On Friday, they found enough of Haney's flight suit and ejection seat to convince them he had died in the crash, said Col. Jack McMullen, commander of the Air Force's 3rd Wing.
"What's happening right now is we're slowing things down, we're going to be very methodical as we conduct the investigation," Pennell said. "We also don't want to rush out there for safety reasons because we don't want anybody to succumb to the cold."
More equipment, supplies and people headed to the base camp area Saturday in personnel transport vehicles, Pennell said. Snowfall in Fairbanks kept Blackhawk helicopters grounded at Fort Wainwright. The Army helicopters would be there soon to assist the operation, Pennell said.

Zitat

Aircraft Oxygen-Generating Systems Under Investigation
The U.S. Air Force is investigating whether the On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS) found on several U.S. Air Force warplanes, including the F-22 Raptor, might be defective.
"Air Force operational commanders have temporarily restricted F-22 flight operations to an altitude at or below 25,000 feet for routine training missions," said Col. William Nichols, a spokesman for the command, which is responsible for training and equipping the service's combat air forces.
"Air Combat Command is conducting an investigation to assess on-board oxygen generating systems on several platforms, including the F-22," Nichols said. "The investigation is designed for mishap prevention and is a prudent measure to ensure the OBOGS are operating safely.
"When the investigation is completed, the results will be reviewed and appropriate actions, if warranted, will be taken," he said.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman confirmed that the restriction has been in place ever since an F-22 based at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, crashed in November. Lockheed is the prime contractor for the F-22, a next-generation stealth fighter jet.
One Air Force source said that an OBOGS malfunction might have been responsible for the incident, which resulted in the death of Capt. Jeffery Haney, an F-22 pilot assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron.
Despite the restrictions, the Raptor remains fully operational and could carry out combat tasks if needed, he said.
"A standard safety practice with all aircraft is, if there is a known or suspected problem, you take measures to fix it," said Mark Gunzinger, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Washington, and a former Air Force pilot. "It's not something you want to do, but these things happen with complex aircraft."
While the stealth fighter might be restricted in training operations, that does not mean the Raptor would be restricted during wartime missions, Gunzinger said.
"If it's a war, if it's truly a safety-of-flight issue and it's going to hurt pilots and it's going to prevent the mission from being accomplished, then obviously the restriction will stand," he said. "But if it's something of a temporary nature or there is a work-around in time of war, it may not impact combat operations."
An OBOGS malfunction can be potentially life-threatening, said Hans Weber, who sat on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee, and is the current president of Tecop International, a San Diego consulting firm.
"It's a big deal if you're at high altitude and you run out of oxygen," Weber said.
At 50,000 feet, a human being has less than 10 seconds of useful consciousness, he said. The 25,000-foot altitude restriction would allow the pilot to quickly dive below 18,000 feet, where the atmosphere has enough oxygen to ensure prolonged survival in case of an emergency.