Six sailors on the flight deck were injured by debris from the crash. The pilot ejected before the aircraft fell overboard. The subsequent impact crushed the jet’s front landing gear and sent the fighter skidding across the flight deck. The F-35 struck the aft ramp of the Carl Vinson, at 123kt with an AOA of 21°. The pilot attempted to throttle up and regain altitude, but was unable to make the correction in time.Ī US Navy F-35C lands aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier However, combined with the lack of power, this pushed the F-35 below the angle of attack (AOA) needed to land aboard the carrier. In an attempt to address the high approach and airspeed, the pilot made a “nose-down correction”. The pilot had also reduced the fighter’s throttle to idle, according to flight data, which the investigation says left the F-35 “extremely underpowered” on approach for landing. The result was a high landing approach made at an airspeed of 180kt (333km/h) – well above the 140kt the USN says was ideal for the scenario. Instead, the pilot inadvertently remained in manual approach mode – without realising his F-35 was not automatically handling some critical flight adjustments. However, the pilot neglected to engage the advanced jet’s Approach Power Compensation (APC) system – an onboard tool designed to reduce pilot workload during landing by automating some approach tasks. In that incident, the mishap F-35C was travelling at a speed of 400kt (740km/h) when the pilot executed a series of 7 g breaking turns while in “maximum afterburner” to cut speed and approach the USS Carl Vinson for landing. The investigation report cites this as a critical factor, alongside the pilot’s inexperience, in the crash.Īlthough the investigation’s findings were delivered to senior USN leaders last June, and those conclusions affirmed by a top admiral in August, the results have only now become public – more than one year after the mishap occurred. Notably, when breaking aft of or overhead the carrier – as was the F-35 pilot in the 2022 incident – the pilot has reduced time to configure the aircraft and conduct landing checks, the USN says. “During an expedited recovery, an aircraft uses g-forces to decelerate over the course of a 360-degree turn, dropping the landing gear when the aircraft is below landing gear transition speed,” the crash investigation explains. The technique is “commonplace in naval aviation”, according to the service, because it can reduce the amount of time a recovered aircraft spends on the open ship deck. The procedure is also known as a Sierra Hotel Break by naval aviators. The USN describes an expedited recovery breaking manoeuvre as when “an aircraft initiates a turn to downwind from either behind the ship or over the top of the ship”. At the time, the service initially described the incident as a “landing mishap”. “The mishap was the result of pilot error,” he adds. “Specifically, the MP remained in manual mode when he should have been – and thought he was – in an automated command mode designed to reduce pilot workload during landings. “As a result of… the lack of familiarity with the manoeuvre, the MP lost situational awareness and failed to complete his landing check list,” Thomas says. Imagery taken just after the January 2022 crash of a US Navy F-35C fighter, following a failed landing aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea. Airline Business special: CEOs to watch in 2021.FlightGlobal Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2021.EDGE: A new global force in aerospace and defence.Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?.What does the future of aviation look like in 2022?.Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2022.What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?.Airline Business Covid-19 recovery tracker.
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