F-22 Ground Crew Suffered Hypoxia-Like Symptoms

Defensetech ^ | May 9, 2012 | Defensetech

[InsidiousMongo]

Space suits! LOL The thick orange ones the SR-71 pilots used.

[tophat9000]

Im thinking more likely some outgassing that displaces O2 in the human system ...think CO...it binds to your blood hemoglobin in place of and displaces O2...and you right in could be a coting reacting to engine heat...but it would seem to be some chemical emission trigger while the engine is running not some simple systems failer

[I cannot think of a name]

All I know is the stealth stuff is supposedly really nasty. Lockheed had a bunch of employees at Groom Lake sue over it. They weren’t even working with it, but they worked near some pits where a bunch of the stuff had been buried. They had a variety of really strange ailments and illnesses. Lockheed argued they could not possibly been made ill by that stuff since it was buried.

We’ll never know what could have been proved because the government stepped in and made it very clear to Lockheed that none of this business was going to be discussed in open court nor allowed by the discovery process. So Lockheed settled with the workers.

[BuffaloJack]

Most oxygen generating systems work by separating air into oxygen and nitrogen. The oxygen (20%) goes to where it is needed and the nitrogen (80%) is exhausted as a waste stream. Problems arise when these systems aren’t used correctly. Like the little old lady who buys one because she needs oxygen. She doesn’t like the noise from the compressor, so she puts it in a closet; pretty soon all the oxygen is gone from the closet and she’s getting mostly nitrogen.
I wonder if these ground crew people are breathing in the 80% waste nitrogen exhaust.

[The_Reader_David]

I thought the F-22s were going to be hangar queens, but I’d figured it was because no one would be willing to risk losing a piece of hardware that expensive, not because they’d have things seriously wrong with them.

[Colorado Cowgirl]

“Blackbird pilots never got sick since their life support systems were LOx and they flew with zero-G suits.” The high-altitude suits were partial pressure suits, thus requiring a rubber diaphragm around the wearer’s face. I believe they were on O2 long before they left those little vans. So no chance of breathing any aircraft exhaust. We had 6 Habu’s at KAB, when I was stationed on the Rock, 73-75.