Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nellis crash might prompt congressional review

An airman walks Tuesday near the tail section of an F/A-22 Raptor jet that crashed Monday afternoon at Nellis Air Force Base. Photo by Gary Thompson.

While a safety investigation team secured the wreckage Tuesday of one of the nation's next generation fighter jets at Nellis Air Force Base, a Connecticut congressman said the crash might prompt new hearings on the F/A-22 Raptor.

"If the crash delays the F-22 program or increases the costs, this incident may be something my subcommittee follows up on next Congress," Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said in a statement about the stealthy, air-superiority warplane that crashed on takeoff Monday at the Nellis base.

Shays heads the government reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations. He has commissioned audits of the program and has called Air Force and Pentagon officials to Capitol Hill to discuss cost overruns and program delays in recent years.

At the Nellis base, the Raptor's charred fuselage, with its signature twin tail fins intact, rested on the ground in the direction it was taking off when the pilot ejected safely from the jet at about 3:45 p.m. Monday. Parts of the aircraft were strewn along a runway at the north end of the base.

Air Force officials grounded Raptor flights Tuesday at Nellis and two other locations where it operates, Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and Edwards Air Force Base in California, said Jean Schaefer, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

Schaefer put the price tag of the jet that crashed at $133.3 million. Some estimates have put the per aircraft cost as high as $258 million, which includes research and development.

Schaefer described the Raptor's status at Edwards Air Force Base as a "precautionary stand down."

Capt. Maureen Schumann, a Nellis spokeswoman, said flying operations were suspended Tuesday at the base for all aircraft other than for four of the Thunderbird air demonstration team's F-16s that returned to the base. They had to land at McCarran International Airport when the crash shut down Nellis' runways.

Schumann said the base traditionally observes a five-day suspension of flying at Christmastime beginning today.

Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va., will appoint a board of investigators to interview the pilot, whose name has not been released, and to analyze all evidence to determine the cause of the crash, said Sgt. Dawn Collazo, a command spokeswoman.

An interim safety board will continue to gather and safeguard evidence until the Accident Investigation Board is convened and comes to Nellis within the next several days to probe the crash, she said.

The supersonic F/A-22 cruiser can fly at 17 miles per minute and is touted to be world's foremost air-dominance attack jet. Designed to replace the aging F-15 Eagle, it can drop smart bombs, fire air-to-air missiles and shoot a six-barrel cannon. Its high-tech gear enables pilots to evade enemy aircraft while giving them first sight targeting capability.

In all, the Air Force has accepted delivery of 29 Raptors from the manufacturing team of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney. The Air Force intends to purchase a total of 277.

Monday's crash leaves Nellis with seven operational F/A-22s. By 2008, Nellis was expected to be home to 17 Raptors, including nine assigned to the 57th Wing's Weapons School.

Schumann said the Raptor that crashed was part of an operational testing program. It was assigned to the 53rd Wing's 422 Test and Evaluation Squadron.

Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank, said he doubted the crash would derail the fighter jet program. "The Raptor has been under development by the U.S. Air Force since the middle of the Reagan administration and consistently supported through four administrations," said Thompson, who has studied the program.

"It's not likely a $40 billion program would be stopped."

Given years of testing and initial reports that the plane went down shortly after takeoff from Nellis, Thompson said, the crash probably was a result of a mechanical failure.

"A simple takeoff would not lead to a disaster because of a design flaw," Thompson said. "That would have happened five or six years ago during development.

Thompson said he expected the F-22 fleet would be back in the skies within a few weeks.