Research Paper on F-22 Raptor Crash Near Tyndall AFB on November 15, 2012

The accident is one that raised questions about the F-22 Raptor program. Air Craft officials confirmed that the accident happened along a highway in the Florida Panhandle and the pilot was able to eject safely. According to reports, the pilot, who was assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron safely ejected as the jet crashed at around 3.30 p.m (Mimmer, 2016). The F-22 Raptor was the lead of a two-ship training mission. For this reason, there were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground. The pilot received treatment from the base. The accident occurred on November 15, 2012, on a Thursday afternoon. The accident triggered a section of the Highway 98 to halt operations as the rescuers, primarily HAZMAT, responded to the crash. In fact, Highway 98 was temporarily closed at the DuPont Bridge. At first, the cause of the accident was not clear. The witnesses at the site when the accident occurred claimed that the wreckage was on fire. The location of the accident was located on Tyndall Air Force Base, which is a quarter mile east of the drone runway at the base.

Lockheed Martin manufactures the F-22 Raptor, and it is a fifth-generation, twin-engine, and single seat fighter aircraft. It is an all-weather stealth and tactical fighter aircraft that is mainly developed for the U.S. Air Force (USAF). It was primarily designed as an air-superiority fighter that offers electronic warfare, ground attack, as well as signal intelligence capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, but Boeing has also been contracted to provide aft fuselage, wings, training systems, as well as avionics integration. USAF considers the aircraft as critical to its tactical air power because it incorporates stealth, situational awareness, and aerodynamic performance, which provides sophisticated air combat capabilities to the organization. In fact, it is the first aircraft to combine sensor fusion, stealth, super maneuverability, and supercruise in a single weapons platform (Lockheed Martin, n.d).It has clipped delta wings that have a reverse sweep on the rear, retractable tricycle landing gear, and four empennage surfaces. The flight control surfaces entail flaperons, leading-edge flaps, ailerons, moving horizontal tails that also serve as speed brakes, and rudders on canted vertical stabilizers. It has bays at the bottom of the fuselage, as well as on the sides, and these can accommodate a variety of missiles and other weapons for active combat. These internal bays enables the aircraft to have higher performance as the design eliminates aerodynamic drag from external stores, allowing to have a maximum speed of Mach 1.82. For this reason, due to the weaponry the aircraft carries, a crash could be disastrous and should be prevented by all means.

As such, the crash at the Tyndall base of the F-22 Raptor was a major concern. Despite the initial media speculations, there were no indications that pointed that the cause of the accident was a failure of life support system. For this reason, this prompted a thorough investigation by the Air Force and Defense Department policy. When the accident occurred, it was reported that the pilot was conducting a routine training mission when the first responders alerted of a problem through the in-flight emergency call, and subsequently, they were on the accident scene to fight the fire within two minutes of the incident (Dorr, 2012). In fact, according to Colonel David Graff, who is a 325th Fighter Wing commander, the first responders reacted professionally and quickly due to their extensive training at the base, and also provided them with an opportunity to provide immediate medical care to the pilot. The safety team also interviewed witnesses, maintainers, as well as other individuals immediately after the incident so as to make an accident report. However, according to Colonel Graff, the number one priority after the crash was the safety of the airmen and those who were involved.

The first step that was taken was securing process was sweeping by volatile ordnance disposal Airmen for fragments of the aircraft that were potentially explosive. Follow-on steps were also included in addressing the biological and environmental hazards. In essence, most modern aircraft are usually made of composite fibers that can create health concerns to people on the scene once a plane catches fire. Even so, the first responders of the Tyndall crash were well trained and equipped so as to effectively and efficiently respond to air raft crashes, as well as minimizing their effects on the surrounding areas. In the initial and the continued responses, the personnel wore the appropriate protective gear and continued to do so until the immediate crash site was deemed safe. Even though safety was a concern, it was also important to secure and preserve the scene of the accident, which is a critical part for conducting investigations as to why the crash occurred. For this reason, all evidence was photographed and tagged to preserve all the evidence for the official safety investigation board members, as well as for creating a report about what happened in the accident, what caused it and the results of the incident. As such, the evidence is the most crucial aspect as it provides an opportunity to conduct an inspection of the factors that led to the crash.

After reviewing the evidence, it was established that during the flight, the positive generator feeder wire had burned through a hydraulic line which caused the generator to go offline by an Air Force release. The pilot attempted to restart the generator, which subsequently arced. The pilot sought to restart the generator, and the ensuing arc ignited the hydraulic fluid, and in effect, this sparked a fire in the F-22s left accessory drive bay. In consequence, the fire damaged the hydraulic and electrical systems that handle the flight controls (Dorr, 2012). For this reason, the jet became uncontrollable, which triggered the pilot to eject. The pilot also reported this in-flight. Also, the investigations also revealed that weather contributed to the incident. In essence, the weather inhibited the pilots ability to recover, as the solid undercast cloud layers made it difficult for the F-22 pilot to see forward, which obscured the landscape, and thus, the pilot was incapable of controlling the aircraft, preventing any efforts to stop the crash.

After crashing, the jet was destroyed, and the damage was estimated to be around $149.6 million, which included the aircraft, related equipment, as well as site restoration near the Highway 98 and outside of Panama City (F-16.net, 2013). The crash site was located near a runway that was primarily used by QF-4 targeting drones at the Tyndall base. Following the investigations that were conducted in line with the crash, the F-22 maintenance crew used the outcomes as a foundation for multiple inspections of the entire aircraft fleet, and the incident also triggered the Air Force to plan on modifying the systems in the plane, particularly on separating the electrical and hydraulic lines on the jets. For this reason, it can be derived that the cause of the accident was a chafed electrical wire, which was against the hydraulic line that got set on fire (F-16.net, 2013). The combination of the electrical and the hydraulic system triggered arcing, which is characterized of sparks, which ignited the hydraulic fluid. As the hydraulic fluid is flammable, this triggered a fire (Flight Global, 2013). As Flight Global (2013) reports, the fire hindered the operation of the electrical system in the aircraft, which made it difficult for the pilot to control the plane. In such instance, for the safety of the pilot, it is necessary for them to eject because they are incapable of controlling it. Otherwise, it would be endangered the life of the pilot in case the aircraft crashes.

The officials acknowledged an earlier May 31 mishap involving a similar F-22 that was severely damaged in a belly landing. In that incident, it was a pilots error as he failed to advance the throttle to military power during takeoff, which led to a premature retraction of the landing gear, triggering the accident. The F-22 program provides the American Air Force with plenty of defenders as it is the best air-to-air fighter in the world. However, the program has been faced with many problems., including previous crashes, for example, the November 16/10 crash in Alaska. Therefore, to surmise, the F-22 program has been characterized of various accidents. However, in the isolated case near Tyndall AFB on November 15, 2012, was mainly an electrical fault that causes fire, which triggered the crash.

References

Dorr, R. (2012). F-22 Crash at Tyndall Brings New Attention to Raptor Saga. Retrieved from http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/f-22-crash-at-tyndall-brings-new-attention-to-raptor-saga/

Flight Global (2013). Electrical arcing downed Tyndall F-22, says USAF. Retrieved from https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/electrical-arcing-downed-tyndall-f-22-says-usaf-389368/

F-16.net. (2013). F-22 Raptor News: F-22 accident report released. Retrieved from http://www.f-16.net/f-22-news-article4773.html

Lockheed Martin (n.d). F-22 capabilities. Retrieved from http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/f22/f-22-capabilities.html

Mimmer (2016). The F-22 Raptor: Program & Events. Retrieved from http://beta.mimmer.com/articles/the-f-22-raptor-program-events