Posted on 11/24/2021 7:18:58 AM PST by DFG
Investigators fear a £100million F-35 fighter jet crashed into the Mediterranean while taking off because the cheap rain covers had not been taken off properly.
Officials believe the rain cover was sucked into the F-35B Lightning II stealth plane's engine as it took off from the flight deck of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, forcing the pilot to eject.
Naval personnel reported seeing the cover floating in the sea nearby Britain's flagship aircraft carrier after the accident in the Mediterranean on Sunday.
Sources said the RAF pilot realised the issue and tried to abort take-off but was unable to stop the plane before the end of the ship's runway.
The UK was on Tuesday working with the US and Italy to recover the aircraft, believed to be more than a mile below the surface, amid fears Russia would try salvage the wreckage to uncover secret tech onboard.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
technology limited by complexity and operator stupidity.
SNAFU
a 25 billion whoopsie!
We called that a SNAFU in the Air Force.
Always will, like Murphy’s Law...
Would you feel better if they were EXPENSIVE rain shields that weren’t removed and sucked into an engine???
Just goes to prove that even with pre-flight checklists, you can make things idiot proof only to a certain point. Sooner or later, somebody is going to make a better idiot.
Yeah, no kidding.
I’m sure the cover was expensive. If not, it sure is now!
Hmmm! No “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT!” red flag? We used to keep a log of those and they were numbered and accounted for prior to an okay being given.
Where were the Quality assurance people in all this wonder.
Having spent 36 years in aviation maintenance, 17 years of that in a depot level rework facility Quality department I’m thinking they should been close by during aircraft launch.
I agree. I think everyone can agree that planes crash, there isn’t any 100% of the way around that.
But there are understandable reasons and not understandable reasons. This is one of the “not understandable” ones.
In the long run it probably saves money what with all the maintence and rework costs.
Hey Kids! Solve this puzzle!
If a hammer costs $500.
How much does a rain cover cost?
A. two dollars.
B. Six hundred dollars.
C. 35 million dollars.
Attach the deck crews' paychecks to the "Remove Before Flight" items and see just how well they take care of them.
The Royal Navy hasn’t done fixed wing air operations in over a decade. They are rusty and only have the flying moonpig. Not good.
A cursory preflight walkaround would have prevented this. How did the engine even start if the rain cover was still on? Was it dangling from the intake? Was it sitting on the launch deck in front of the plane as FOD?
There’s a lot of people not paying attention here, not just QA. Pilot, Crew Chief, Launch Crew... Maybe they were too busy getting trained on Gender fluid pronouns.
I’ve seen a lot smaller things than this FOD out an engine. Bird strikes come to mind.
“Maybe they were too busy getting trained on Gender fluid pronouns”
Remember this was a British outfit not American.....is their military going through the woke thing like ours is?
Remember, this is the British Navy which has been decimated over the years by Parliament budget cuts and only in the last few years had a working carrier. They are inexperienced and had no business getting F-35s in the first place.
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