F-35 Fighters Grounded at U.S. Air Force Base in Arizona Due to Pilot Oxygen Problems

KTLA ^ | 07/10/2017

[BenLurkin]

The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona suspended all F-35A flights Friday after the five pilots experienced hypoxia-like symptoms, Air Force spokesman Capt. Mark Graff said in a statement. The pilots all used their backup oxygen to land the planes safely.

“In order to synchronize operations and maintenance efforts toward safe flying operations we have canceled local F-35A flying,” said Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, commander of the 56th Fighter Wing. “The Air Force takes these physiological incidents seriously, and our focus is on the safety and well-being of our pilots. We are taking the necessary steps to find the root cause of these incidents.”

Graff said that the pause was taken “not out of fear or out of danger, but out of an abundance of caution,” and said the Air Force plans to resume operations on Saturday.

[Hulka]

F-22 had something similar a few years back.

[Hulka]

F-22 had something similar a few years back.

[rktman]

Just crank open the wing vent to let some fresh air in. Used to work on my NON ac ‘66 Ford Fairland GT 390/4spd.

[Yo-Yo]

OBOGS strikes again. F/A-18, T-45, F-22, and now the F-35. Time to revisit this entire system.

[noiseman]

Yep, sounds like it. Maybe they should just revert to oxygen bottles until they can fix the oxygen generators. A decent-sized bottle will supply oxygen for several hours. I think the main reason for the switch was to have an unlimited O2 supply, but this issue is getting ridiculous.

[wardaddy]

I can’t imagine hypoxia at Mach II and 50,000 feet in a tube

It was bad enough my last nighttime winter ascent of Annapurna south wall

But hey what’s no air really

[scottinoc]

Maybe if they spent less time and resources making the military into a social experimentation lab, there would be more resources to fix details like this.

[Islander7]

A decent-sized bottle will supply oxygen for several hours...

A decent sized bottle lasting several hours would weight 300+ pounds and be the size of a large bomb. Not an option.

[Not A Snowbird]

I enjoy the sound of the F-35s from Luke AFB flying over my house. It’s very quiet today.

[Davy Crocket]

Just crank open the wing vent to let some fresh air in. Used to work on my NON ac ‘66 Ford Fairland GT 390/4spd.

Ah those were the days.. The old mech Vent and the wing window...Times were so much easier then.

[publius911]

F-22 had something similar a few years back.

A few months ago. I sense not only a pattern here, but a systematic network of technical moles in our defense systems manufacturing industry.

>China?< >China?< >China?< >China?< >China?<

[publius911]

... or software...

[dila813]

July 2017 ah?

[M Kehoe]

If the AF needs money to fix the problem, confiscate the money from the State Department’s budget. They don’t need the money anyway.

5.56mm

[noiseman]

That's just not true. I used to fly sailplanes, and the bottles that we had installed would last for several hours, and were connected to pressure breathing regulators that were good to over 40,000' (for high-altitude flights in mountain wave). I don't know what the bottles weighed, but it was nowhere near 300 lbs, as the empty weight of most sailplanes is around 800 to 900 lbs.

I'm also pretty sure that's how most fighters have handled it as well until recent generations. In fact, I just looked it up and the F-18, for example, used liquid oxygen (bottle) until recent variants that upgraded to an oxygen generator.

[noiseman]

Just a small correction: I was referring to two-place sailplanes when I mentioned the weight. Single-seaters are closer to 600 pounds, and even they have liquid oxygen tanks. There is no difference in this case between a fighter and a sailplane either, because the human still breathes the same.