USAF Alaskan F-22 Raptor Missing Believed to have Crashed

[rapidsquirrel]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if air force pilots go through similar survival training as army aviators?

I think I remember my first flight instructor telling me about his son going though it. The final tests for it was along the lines of "here's a knife and a dead rabbit, don't let us find you for three days" in various different terrain types.

[Sea Skimmer]

Yeah they have a pretty extensive survival training program, if this guy got on the ground alive he should be okay for at least several days… but the lack of radio contact and lack of contact with his rescue beacon isn’t a good sign. Though mountains or similar terrain features could be blocking the signal.

[Beowulf]

I don't have my full suite of information sources on the weather for the region available, but a preliminary look tells me that weather is likely not a factor in the crash. Conditions at Elmendorf AFB have been clear, with unrestricted visibility, and although the incident took place 100 miles north of the air base, weather satellite imagery of Alaska doesn't indicate much that could have restricted visibility. This is bolstered by the fact that the F-22 that was flying at the same time took on fuel from a tanker, which is not an operation which takes place in bad weather, typically (accidentally flying a F-22 into a KC-135 being considered bad). Also, they were able to begin the search for the aircraft visually, rather rapidly after the incident occurred. It is, it should be noted, really freaking cold up there right now.

[Broomstick]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if air force pilots go through similar survival training as army aviators?

Yes. If I recall our own Wicked Pilot had a thread where he discussed a little about his and posted some pictures. Of course, he couldn't tell us everything because of military rules and such, but yes, they do get survival training.

If the weather is good that's a big plus - but cold alone can be a problem, there are large predators in the area that will happily eat a healthy man, much less an injured one if the pilot got hurt. I hope they find him soon.

[Sea Skimmer]

Aircraft is totally destroyed and parts of the ejection seat have been found in the wreckage. So its pretty well certain the pilot did not survive.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40283331/ns/us_news/

[Agent Fisher]

Damn, I was hoping for a happy outcome for the raptor driver.

[Chardok]

That's certainly terrible news; but now we must answer some questions: What in the world causes the most advanced aircraft in the world to simply fall out of the sky with no indication from the pilot that there was a problem. I am intensely curious to see if they recover the FDR/CVR

[Broomstick]

I'm not sure what purpose a CVR serves in a one-person airplane.... do F-22's even have one? Flight data recorder sounds much more likely.

[iborg]

I'm not sure what purpose a CVR serves in a one-person airplane.... do F-22's even have one? Flight data recorder sounds much more likely.

If you can put one, why not put the other in ? A single box could conceivably do both functions.
Sad news on the pilot

[White Haven]

I could see it being useful to catch what the pilot was trying to relay back to base in the event of a communications/power failure.

[Chardok]

Broom may be right - everything I see online so far indicates it has a FDR but no mention of a CVR - I assume it would be an all-in-one device.

[Sea Skimmer]

If you can put one, why not put the other in ? A single box could conceivably do both functions.
Sad news on the pilot

Certainly you could put both functions in one box from a purely technological standpoint but operational reasons exist not to do that. The main issue is the device has to be crash proof. The smaller the device the easier it can be built strong enough to do that. So splitting the data and voice functions into different boxes means each one can be stronger, and you have redundancy in case one or the other does get destroyed. I’ve personally never heard of a cockpit voice recorded on a fighter, which doesn’t really mean anything, but its just not that logical since the pilot is only talking to himself. It makes far more sense in big planes which regular pilot-copilot chatter.

[FSTargetDrone]

I’ve personally never heard of a cockpit voice recorded on a fighter, which doesn’t really mean anything, but its just not that logical since the pilot is only talking to himself. It makes far more sense in big planes which regular pilot-copilot chatter.

Apparently, some Indian (and British?) Harriers carry/carried CVRs:

The BAE Systems FA2 Sea Harrier fighter aircraft, which was in service with the British Royal Navy, provided air defence for the carrier fleet, particularly against low-flying attack aircraft armed with long-range air-to-surface missiles. The FA2 first flew in 1988 and entered service in 1993. 56 aircraft were built for the Royal Navy. The Sea Harrier was retired from the UK Royal Navy in March 2006, but is currently in service with the Indian Navy.

The design of the aircraft is optimised for air-to-air combat with secondary missions of surveillance, air-to-sea and air-to-ground attack.

The aircraft is able to detect and destroy threats before the launch of an attack using long-range weapon systems with look-down and shoot-down tactical capability.

In February 2002, the UK Ministry of Defence announced that RN FA2 Sea Harriers would be retired from service by April 2006, and that the combined RAF/RN joint force Harrier (JFH) will be operated with RAF Harrier GR7/9 aircraft by 2007.

The first of the Royal Navy's three Sea Harrier squadrons was decommissioned in March 2004. The final Sea Harrier squadron, 801 NAS, was decommissioned on 29 March 2006. The Harriers will be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from 2012.

The ground attack / reconnaissance GR7s were upgraded to GR9 standard with new systems including: mission computer, stores management system for the deployment of the Brimstone anti-armour missile and precision-guided bombs, inertial navigation system / global positioning system, ground proximity warning system, upgraded displays and secure communications. The GR9 took its maiden flight in May 2003 and entered service in September 2006.

In March 2005, Indian Navy awarded an aircraft upgrade contract to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The contract includes the fitting of Elta EL/M-2032 multimode fire control radars and Rafael Derby visual range air-to-air missiles. The aircraft are also fitted with new combat manoeuvring flight recorders and digital cockpit voice recorders. The upgrades were completed in 2009.

...

The FA2 Harrier is fitted with a BAE SYSTEMS Blue Vixen pulse Doppler all-weather radar. Blue Vixen is a multimode radar that performs ground mapping and surface target detection and tracking, in addition to long-range look-up and look-down detection and tracking of aircraft. The radar also interfaces to the AMRAAM missile system.

An F.95 surveillance camera is installed in the nose of the aircraft, with a cockpit voice recorder for surveillance mission evaluation.

Sounds like it allows for some running commentary from the pilot as he observes a target of interest.

[Sea Skimmer]

It just occurred to me that US Army helicopters have voice recorders too. However simply being able to record the cockpit voice chatter isn't the same as having a crash rated voice recorder. I mean lots of jets have had actual VCRs to record targeting pod data and the radar screen since the technology first appeared, never mind WW2 gun camera kind of stuff, but that sure won’t survive a three thousand G crash.