Posted on 11/15/2012 5:18:05 PM PST by Yo-Yo
The US Air Force confirms that a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor crashed at 15:30 today as it was returning to Tyndall AFB, Florida.
The pilot ejected "safely" from the F-22 and is being evaluated for injuires by base medical staff, the USAF says. Tyndall is an F-22 training base, but the pilot was not a student, the USAF confirms.
The crash occurred about 0.4km (0.22nm) east of the drone runway at Tyndall and near Highway 98, which was closed briefly while hazardous materials units responded.
It is the first F-22 crash since a fatal incident in November 2010 killed Captain Jeff Haney and led to a series of investigations and groundings over glitches and perceived faults in the stealth fighter's oxygen system.
"There is nothing to indicate that it is related to that," the USAF says.
The USAF will convene an accident investigation board to determine the cause of the crash.
Until the Tyndall crash today, the F-22 fleet had completed 21,000 sorties without the loss of an aircraft. The USAF had removed nearly all of the operating restrictions on the F-22 imposed after the November 2010 crash, with the exception of high-altitude flying beyond 40,000ft.
The latest crash reduces the USAF inventory of F-22s to 182 aircraft, with the last serial number delivered from Lockheed earlier this year.
Still tragic a loss of a rare commodity. Prayers of thanks that the pilot is safe.
That is a lot of money that’ll never come back
Scumbag in Chief happy this one is gone.
He voted against it and wouldn’t even allow his picture to be taken with one.
I was watching the local Panama City TV station this afternoon and they showed a video of the crash.
It was taken from a long distance away but you could tell the plane was on fire. It did not drop like a rock but went down slowly.
I found this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAgz9OhMFmo&feature=youtu.be
Beautiful Tyndall, spent 4 years there 51-55 in 801’st Med.
Not appropriate or funny.
Your disapproval is noted.
My Daddy worked at Tyndall just about that same time.
Around 1955 they had a massive lay off and he lost his job. Daddy worked selling vacuum cleaners, Insurance, etc. before he got back on at Eglin.
Daddy hated Eisenhower til his dying day.
that’s a lot of airplane that’ll never come back.
The Federal government spends $6.85 million per minute.
It's gonna take 21 minutes to pay this off!!!!
FWIW I laughed. That was an F/A-18, however.
LOL. ..Glad the F-22 driver is safe.... and that video was hilarious.
What a tragic situation.We have so damn few of these planes in service and if I recall the construction line to build new ones ha been closed.
What is the Air Force going to do to get replacements quick?
This was something I feared when they started chopping to numbers they were originally supposed to build.
Not to worry, China has started making copies...
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