High-profile accidents involving the latest generation of American aircraft are becoming more and more frequent.
In the last five days alone, an F-22 and an F-35A have crashed, and there have been many such incidents before.
So what is happening to the fifth generation of American fighters? F-22 Raptor crashes: pilots have long been afraid to fly this aircraft Similar incidents have occurred with the F-22, which is no longer in production.
On March 25, 2009, an F-22 crashed near Edwards Air Force Base, killing its pilot, Lieutenant Colonel David Cooley.
On November 16, 2010, another incident with a tragic ending occurred:
an F-22 crash from Elmendorf Air Force Base took the life of pilot Captain Jeffrey Haney.
At first, Air Force officials put forward a version of pilot error, but then it turned out that the cause of the tragedy was engine overheating.
Captain Haney's widow sued Lockheed Martin.
The next accident occurred on November 15, 2012. An F-22A Block 10 aircraft of the 43rd Fighter Squadron, 325th Fighter Wing of the US Air Force crashed near Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, but this time the pilot managed to escape, although he was injured. There have been many interesting stories associated with the F-22. Thus, during 2011-2012, the US Air Force even suspended flights of all fighters of this model several times.
There was also a public statement by two pilots in which they declared their refusal to fly the F-22.
F-35s also crash and burn The fifth-generation multirole fighter F-35 was conceived as a more advanced model, replacing the F-22.
What PR moves were not invented in the USA to ensure sales of this very expensive aircraft to foreign countries. Thus, one of the most important buyers of the aircraft was Japan.
Meanwhile, six months before the F-35A crash in Japan, on September 28, 2018, an F-35B fighter jet belonging to the 501st Marine Strike Fighter Training Squadron of the US Marine Corps crashed 8 km west of the Beaufort Air Force Base in South Carolina.
The pilot managed to eject and escape. CBS News then called the accident the first case of a crash in the F-35 fighter family.
Before the crash in South Carolina, incidents with the F-35, although they occurred, did not result in crashes.
Thus, fires occurred repeatedly, but the pilots managed to make emergency landings. The first such incident occurred on June 23, 2014, with an F-35A assigned to the 58th Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force.
The pilot managed to abort the flight and abandon the aircraft, but the damage caused by the fire was so significant that the aircraft had to be written off.
Another fire occurred on October 27, 2016, with an F-35B aircraft of the 501st Marine Strike Fighter Training Squadron of the US Marine Corps from the Beaufort Air Base.
The aircraft was successfully landed, no one was hurt, but the damage was also so significant that the F-35B was written off. Meanwhile, regardless of whether the pilots survived the accident or not, whether the aircraft was saved or had to be written off, any incidents with the F-35 hit the image of the aircraft, in the program for the creation of which the United States invested hundreds of billions of dollars.
Not only is each aircraft very expensive and in the event of a write-off or destruction, the owner country loses colossal money, but accidents also cast doubt on the advantages of the F-35 for potential buyers.
Therefore, the United States is not at all interested in making public the true causes of accidents.