USAF launches search for missing F-22 Raptor

[houshanghai]

Search for pilot of F-22 fighter jet after it crashed in remote Alaska
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:35 AM on 18th November 2010
Comments (0)
Add to My Stories
An aerial search is underway in the Alaskan wilderness after a U.S. fighter pilot crashed during a training exercise.
A single-seat F22 fighter jet - the most sophisticated in the U.S. Air Force fleet - left Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on a routine training run but crashed after 80 minutes of flight on Tuesday evening.
Wreckage of the high-speed aircraft has been found about 100 miles north of Anchorage but officials hope the as-yet-unnamed pilot could have survived the crash.

Crashed: The wreckage from a missing F-22 Raptor plane has been found 100 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska
'Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing Airman, and we thank all Alaskans for their continued support and prayers during this trying time,' said Air Force Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander.
'Finding the missing pilot is our top priority.'
Col. Jack McMullen said the pilot would have been prepared for the cold conditions if he had ejected from his jet and survived.
'[The pilots] have survival gear,' he explained. 'He's Arctic trained to survive in that environment. He's got the gear on.
'He's got stuff in his survival kit, so that he could hunker himself down and fight the extreme cold.'
Rescue aircraft and the Alaska Air National Guard scoured the crash site on Wednesday morning while two Air Guard helicopters and a C-130 airplane searched for signs of the pilot's potential survival, such as a parachute or a campfire.
'There's no sign of the pilot at this point, from what I've been told,' guard spokesman Major Guy Hayes commented.
A pararescue team is to return to the crash site on Thursday, Major Hayes added.
'They're going to put them back in at first light, or they'll put in somebody - a crash recovery team or somebody.'

Rescue operation: The Alaska Air National Guard are searching for a missing pilot after a fighter jet crashed 100 miles north of Anchorage
The cause of the crash has not yet been established, with Air Force officials saying the fighter jet had been nearing the end of its training run on Tuesday evening when ground radar lost sight of it and another pilot on the mission lost communications.
The twin-engine F-22 Raptor is one of the fastest, most maneouvrable jets in operation, with a confidential top speed and the ability to cruise at more than 1.5 times the speed of sound without using its afterburner.
However, plans to add seven more F-22s to the U.S. Air Force's fleet of 187 were last year cancelled by Congress, saving $1.75 billion from the Defence department's budget.
An F-22 pilot was killed in March 2009 after a crash near Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Explore more:


Read more: Search for pilot of F-22 fighter jet after it crashed in remote Alaska | Mail Online

 

[houshanghai]

Missing military jet 'believed to be crashed,' Pentagon says
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 17, 2010 -- Updated 2241 GMT (0641 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: A search operation was underway
A Pentagon spokesman says it's believed the plane has crashed
The missing plane is an F-22
Its base is in Anchorage, Alaska
Washington (CNN) -- An Alaska-based Air Force F-22 that went missing on a training mission is "believed to be crashed," a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
Col. Dave Lapan did not immediately give other details about the situation.
The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control Tuesday evening, officials from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at Anchorage, Alaska, said Wednesday.
Gary Strasburg, an Air Force spokesman, told CNN that a pilot was in the single-seat aircraft during a routine training mission.
Contact was lost with the F-22 at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time (11:40 p.m. ET) on Tuesday.
Helicopters and a search-and-rescue plane were dispatched to comb the area northeast of Cantwell, Alaska, the last known location of the aircraft, the Air Force said in a statement. The search was being coordinated by the Alaska Air National Guard Rescue Coordination Center.
"Right now, our top priority is to try to bring the pilot home safely," said Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander. "We will continue to search until we find our pilot. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing Airman."
CNN's Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report
Missing military jet 'believed to be crashed,' Pentagon says - CNN.com

 

[Chogy]

Oh no... the pilot's seat kit should have a UHF radio and beacon. If he survived, he should have been able to contact rescuers over the radio.

Most of Alaska is like Siberia. Amazingly remote.

 

[SpArK]

Oh no... the pilot's seat kit should have a UHF radio and beacon. If he survived, he should have been able to contact rescuers over the radio.

Most of Alaska is like Siberia. Amazingly remote.

Like... in the movie "behind enemy lines".

 

[SpArK]

Anyway its been found

http://www.defence.pk/forums/1277488-post6.html

 

[houshanghai]

Pilot Still Missing.....



Canadian fighter jet crashes in Alberta

The Rescue Co-Ordination Centre at CFB Trenton, Ont., says a CF-18 fighter jet crashed overnight in Cold Lake, Alta. The jet is similiar to this one that Capt. Tim "Donor" Woods pilots during a practice and preview day for the Winds and Wheels show in St. Thomas, Ontario on Friday, June 19, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley
COLD LAKE, Alta. - A pilot escaped with only minor injuries when his CF-18 fighter jet crashed into a wooded area near Canadian Forces Base, Cold Lake, Alta.

Capt. Keith Hoey, spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton, Ont., says the plane was returning from a mission when it went down just before midnight local time.

"The airplane was on final approach. The indications we got from the satellites picking up the emergency transmitter was that the aircraft was about 11 kilometres away from the airport," said Hoey.

He said the pilot had to eject from the twin-engine aircraft "for some reason unknown at this time."

The pilot was rescued more than two hours later by a Griffon helicopter crew from Cold Lake.

Hoey said the emergency response to the crash was immediate.

"I think due to the weather and the fact that it was dark just made it difficult to find him."

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

The crash is the second in Alberta involving a CF-18 in about four months.

In July, one of the jets exploded in a huge fireball during a low-speed, low-level practice run prior to an air show in Lethbridge.

The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, suffered back injuries when he ejected from the aircraft just seconds before it hit the ground.

The crash prompted the military to pull such fighter jets from air shows for the remainder of the year.


http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/cp-article.aspx?cp-documentid=26396577

 

[amalakas]

F-22 isn't really coming out with a pleasant news as it should huh? 3 down already and its just 5 years since they entered service. I am wondering what situation the pilot was in when he was forced to do a 9G maneuver in a non-wartime scenario. Raptors don't dog-fight and neither was this any specific wargame in which it was participating.

Situational awareness becomes a problem when a pilot is either in extreme maneuvering or has no automatic systems whereby his concentration towards his vicinity reduces while on workload increases. Funny it happened in a Raptor. Leaves a lot of questions un-answers.

it doesn't really.. all aircraft are liable t failures and accidents. that is why we call them that, accidents, they sort of... happen.

Bad timing, a bad moment, a loss of concentration during operation or maintenance and an accident happens. Nothing different to driving every day really.

I hope the pilot is fine, these accidents mean nothing about planes or pilots. they simply happen sometimes...

 

[Chogy]

I knew someone would pipe up about cost, reliability, etc.

The safety record has been excellent. When the F-16 started up, crashes were much more frequent.

MiG and Su types have similar or worse records.

The 9 "G" referred to a previous accident:

Lockheed test pilot David Cooley briefly lost situational awareness during a 9g manoeuvre. As he regained awareness, the F-22 was already diving through 14,000ft at M1.6. Cooley ejected a moment before the F-22 crashed, but the aerodynamic forces at M1.4 killed him.

That is called GLOC, G loss of consciousness, not loss of situational awareness. It is dangerous and more common than many think. I had it happen to me once at only 1,500 feet, during the pitch-out to land phase. I was exhausted, and the G's got me. The only reason I'm alive is because when I passed out, the jet's nose was pointed slightly up rather than down. When I woke up, I was beaming away from the traffic pattern, climbing in a slight bank.

When you wake up, you cannot remember anything and are disoriented for about 10 seconds.

I hope they find the pilot. I wish I was more hopeful, but if he was alive, his kit contains a radio that should allow him to talk to rescuers.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

i really hope the pilot is found safe and sound....very sad news

don't ejection seats on these aircrafts have GPS tracker beacons on them?

 

[Capt.Popeye]

I knew someone would pipe up about cost, reliability, etc.

The safety record has been excellent. When the F-16 started up, crashes were much more frequent.

MiG and Su types have similar or worse records.

The 9 "G" referred to a previous accident:



That is called GLOC, G loss of consciousness, not loss of situational awareness. It is dangerous and more common than many think. I had it happen to me once at only 1,500 feet, during the pitch-out to land phase. I was exhausted, and the G's got me. The only reason I'm alive is because when I passed out, the jet's nose was pointed slightly up rather than down. When I woke up, I was beaming away from the traffic pattern, climbing in a slight bank.

When you wake up, you cannot remember anything and are disoriented for about 10 seconds.

I hope they find the pilot. I wish I was more hopeful, but if he was alive, his kit contains a radio that should allow him to talk to rescuers.

Additionally would'nt he have a Personal Locator Beacon; please correct me if i am wrong in my premise.
Hope the SAR operation is successful and soon.

 

[Chogy]

I don't know the current survival kit contents, but it is amazing what they can jam into a little box. Lots of cool stuff. Everything from a life raft to radios.

It makes sense in these days to have some sort of beacon in the seat kit that hooks into the satellite SAR (Search and Rescue) network.

 

[Donatello]

Every Aircraft have history of crashing. Except the few new ones. Lets hope the pilot is OK and that they find him on time.

Sir,

There is a big difference in this case,

That's 2 F/A 22 lost, meaning 500million $ gone and pilot dead.

That is like PAF crashing an entire squadron of JF-17 or even more......



Think about it...

 

[Chogy]

Of course the financial loss hurts, but the loss of the pilot is of greater concern.

Jets crash.

It's not $500 million, either. You'll see real numbers closer to $150 mil to 200 mil. I recommend Google, an excellent search engine.
Click here for fresh data

 

[unicorn]

It is equal to nearly one F22p frigrate which we get from china.But no cost is bigger than the pilot.

 

[CardSharp]

Of course the financial loss hurts, but the loss of the pilot is of greater concern.

Jets crash.

It's not $500 million, either. You'll see real numbers closer to $150 mil to 200 mil. I recommend Google, an excellent search engine.
Click here for fresh data

I know you can't put a price on a pilot's life but what is the cost to train an elite pilot (including cost of training dropouts)?

It's probably around the 4-5 million mark isn't it?