raptor missing in Alaska

ATC lost contact with it last night on a training mission.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/17/349828/usaf-launches-search-for-missing-f-22-raptor.html

 

Hope the pilot is Ok.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/17/alaska.plane.overdue/index.html?hpt=T2

If they "believe" it's crashed then it's pretty safe to say it has.

Isn't this the second or third one to crash in the last year or two?

Crazy tin-foil question: Would an F-22 have enough fuel to make it from Alaska to Russia?

 

Depending on where in Alaska it was flying, almost certainly (and I don't even know how much range an F-22 has!).

It's like asking if it would have enough fuel to make it to Canada.

 

There has only been one crash of an operational Raptor, and that was because the pilot forgot an item on his checklist before takeoff; the aircraft was blameless.

 

Gotcha. This would make the second assuming it becomes a confirmed crash then. When it comes to fighter jets what is considered the norm for crashes?

FYI - I'm not trying to fault the aircraft by any means as I absolutely love them. Thought I'd clarify that before getting flamed. I was speachless when I saw it perform in person. What an amazing machine!

 

They found the wreckage...still looking for pilot.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/17/349873/usaf-spots-apparent-f-22-wreckage-pilot-still-missing.html

185 left...and counting. Hopefully the new congress gets the gov't to pay for some more, especially since it's looking more and more like the F-35B is going to get canceled and the A and C procurement numbers sliced and diced.

 

Local details:

http://www.adn.com/2010/11/17/1559051/search-continues-for-elmendorf.html

 

Looks like the pilot did not make it

http://www.adn.com/2010/11/19/1563439/air-force-says-pilot-died-in-crash.html

 

has anybody read this:

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/269/862/China_shoots_down_F22_over_Alaska.html

 

People and there tin foil hats

 

10 different agencies, military and civilian would have noticed ANY launch of a missile from a submarine off the coast of Alaska, including countless satellites..

Somebody has been listening to "Crackpot Radio" again.

 

I can't believe people write stuff like that. Shame it's not illegal to be an idiot.

If one of our Raptors can go up there and ride herd on 6 F-15E's and not be seen by them on radar when he's right above them, then shoots them down in an exercise; then no crappy Chinese missile is gonna find him.

That F-22 vs F-15 scenario is real and I heard it straight from the pilots lips right here on my flight line when he came to ferry one home. The Raptor is the top of the heap.

My condolences to the family of that pilot.

 

There was another tin foil hat post about UFOs doing it...ooooookay. Let the pilot rest in peace. Jeez.

I believe the Raptor took down more than 6 F15s...I forgot where the exercise was done, but Tydall keeps coming to mind.

 

Oh, Good God. You can't take a wizz in the woods anymore without someone concocting a conspiracy theory about it. Is life really that boring?

I'm sorry for the family of the pilot. Not going to be an easy holiday season for them :-(

 

It was a few years ago in Alaska according to the pilot. Waxed their butts.

 

Thought I would bring this back up to the top to see if anybody had heard anything on the (real) probable cause - unintentional contact with terrain, perhaps?

 

Probably won't be anything out for months at best.

 

The aircraft was lost on a night mission. No matter how advanced your aircraft is and how many pilot aids you have, it is possible to lose situational awareness and fly the aircraft into the ground. Unfortunately, this appears to be one of those incidents. The aircraft hit the ground relatively steeply from the photographs, and this would seem to indicate the pilot was spatially disoriented.

The F-22A normally carries 6 AIM-120s and 2 AIM-9s. The first 6 are BVR and the AIM-9s are close-in IR missiles. Killing 6 is good, because all 6 could be killed without being detected and while shooting from an offset location to reduce detection probability. To use the AIM-9s, the range would be close and the F-22A would be vulnerable in a 1 v many scenario because of its large size. Not a good plan.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Thanks, Taz.

Your scenario was just what I was thinking. I was reading an aviation book last night and it got me thinking again about this thread.

Tragic - but I guess pilot error is in a strange way better than another F16-like control system scandal.

 

Didn't they just test some new flight software on a F/A-18 that will allow the aircraft to automatically regain control in the event that something catastrophic (i.e. hitting the ground) is about to become unavoidable?

 

I think I read that they are now going to put ground proximity warning sensors on all the fighters.....

 

For some reason I thought that was already a part of the F-22?

 

We lose pilots, military and civilian, this way all the time. We teach in Flight Surgeon school that many of the causes of aircraft accidents and performance problems are the same as we had in the Great War.

It can happen to all of us.

 

I think that over 90% of the aviation accidents are pilot caused. When you get a state of the art plane, one that doesn't have tens of thousands of hours and many failures, each time someone flies it, they are essentially a test pilot, and the accident rate is much higher than that for general aviaiton or commercial aviation. I think during the viet nam war, the survival rate for Navy pilots was only about 40%, not the crash rate, but only 40% of them lived to complete their Navy careers as scheduled. A very risky business.

Art