F-22 Raptor makes an emergency landing in Alaska. Raptor Came To A Rest On Its Side After Making Emergency Landing In Alaska
The F-22 made an emergency landing with a landing gear issue. The aircraft suffered from substantial damage when a wing touched the ground. There were no injuries reported.
The pilot was able to exit the aircraft safely and the mishap is currently under investigation.
Elmendorf AFB public affairs statement:
“An F-22 Raptor assigned to JBER’s 3rd Wing made an emergency landing on JBER’s active runway at approximately 1 p.m. local time today. The pilot was able to egress the aircraft safely.
The incident is under investigation, more details may be released as they become available. “
Related link: Videos of F-22 Raptor Crash | List of All F-22 Crash So far
We still don’t know what exactly the extent of the damage to the jet is or what caused the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The F-22’s special radar-evading skin, composite construction materials, and unique airframe structures can make the aircraft very expensive to fix. Considering there are already two F-22s that are in need of extensive structural repairs, this one may have to get in line.
Related link: Second F-22 raptor Incidents Within a Week
Considering there are only about 187 Raptors in the USAF’s inventory, of which only about 125 are combat coded at any given time, the loss or even the sidelining of a single airframe can have a big impact. Case in point, the USAF spent 25,000 man-hours of labor just to get a perfectly straight F-22 back in the air and updated after spending six years in storage:
Bewildering facts about Raptor 4006, the resurrected test F-22 that was in storage for 6 years:
-25,000 labor man-hours to get it back in the air
-11,000 fixes
-Service life extension from 2k to 4k hours
-This equates to 12.5 labor hours per flight hour
-27 months to complete pic.twitter.com/svHAyVTDkG— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) September 1, 2018
In addition, we still don’t know how many F-22s, if any, were damaged after Hurricane Michael slammed directly into Tyndall AFB in Florida. It is possible that the USAF could suddenly have to deal with a number of additional Raptors that have been structurally damaged in some way.
So one F-22 airframe has been spotted in a roofless hangar at Tyndall. Check out the upper left portion of this photo. No idea if this is flying airframe or a ground trainer or what, but it doesn't look good. More on Tyndall AFB's sad state here: https://t.co/JikiO65eny pic.twitter.com/GlvQ6hnJP7
— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) October 12, 2018
