Thursday, January 13, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Air Force official cites flight software in Nellis crash

After his final qualifying flight Wednesday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper, left, uses a computer to sign out on an F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet while Staff Sgt. Jonathan Tringali watches at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The wreckage of an F/A-22 Raptor sits at the end of a runway at Nellis Air Force Base in this photo from Dec. 22. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

A glitch in the software for controlling flight probably caused an F/A-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet to crash on takeoff last month at Nellis Air Force Base, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper said Wednesday.

Jumper, who had just completed his third qualifying flight of a Raptor at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., emphasized in a conference call with reporters that the investigation into the crash continues and that a malfunction of the plane's software flight-control system is a preliminary assessment of what caused the crash.

"The impact on the program is one that we will take to heart with regard to the flight controls and the software that controls the flight controls," Jumper said by telephone.

"It's a fix that is now well-understood and in place, and I don't think it's going to have any impact on the program because these things are the sort of things that we expect to happen," he said.

Later, Jumper explained that while the assessment was not final, Air Force officials felt they had enough confidence in "the fix" to allow the more than 30 Raptors at Nellis, Tyndall and California's Edwards Air Force Base to resume flying Jan. 6 after they had been grounded for two weeks.

"The first look is that it was flight-control related. ... It looks like it's something that we can understand. As you know, we're flying the airplane again so we think it's pretty well-understood," said Jumper, who has logged more than 4,700 hours at the controls of nine different aircraft including F-4s, F-15s, F-16s and now the F/A-22 Raptor.

The pilot in the Nellis crash has been described by Air Warfare Center commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein as a highly experienced, decorated combat pilot with 60 hours flying time on the air-superiority warplane and 2,000 hours on other aircraft. The pilot, whose name has not been released, ejected safely before the $133 million jet slammed into the runway during takeoff on Dec. 20.

The Air Force has 34 operational Raptors in its fleet, including seven at Nellis and one recently delivered to Langley Air Force Base, Va.

After his flight Wednesday, Jumper said he stands by the Air Force intentions to acquire 381 Raptors to replace the nation's aging fleet of more than 800 F-15 fighter jets.

"The Raptor I flew today has a 2002 manufacturing date on it but right down the ramp from us are F-15s that have `1975' on the tail. So we're going to be using this Raptor out there 30 years from now. And, we're looking at the threats around the world that are certainly not all terrorist-related threats," he said.

He was referring to the Russian-made, long-range Sukhoi air-superiority fighter. One model, the Su-27, or Sukhoi Flanker, is comparable to the Air Force's F-15 Eagle.

"The common cry that I hear is that this (the Raptor) is a Cold War machine and it's got that label. But, in fact, Cold War adversary systems like the Sukhoi series of fighters and the surface-to-air missiles that are still being made and bought around the world are there to contest airspace no matter what goes on," Jumper said.

"If a guerrilla war or a terrorist activity is going in contested airspace, we're going to have to get through that airspace to deal with it," he said.

Jumper said the question is not about the Raptor's capabilities but about what's an appropriate number of them for the nation's defense.

"So we'll go at that with a fresh look and an open mind, and we'll try to see if we can come up with numbers that everybody agrees to," he said.

As for his first flight in a Raptor, Jumper said he was consumed with keeping up with checklists and the plane's many displays and controls.

"I was trying to make sure that my mind was not about a mile behind the airplane," he said, adding later, "You have such incredible situational awareness around you, it's different than anything this old fighter pilot has ever seen before."