Re: F-22 Crash


Message posted by Turbo182 on March 27, 2009 at 12:23:20 PST:

This came off the AOPA Forum:
From AirForceTimes.com...

The pilot flying the F-22 that crashed Wednesday morning near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.

The pilot, whose name was not released, was a contractor working for Lockheed Martin, the company that manufactures the F-22. Officials didn’t say if the pilot had served in the Air Force.

The Raptor crashed at around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning about 25 miles northeast of Edwards while flying a test mission, said Gary Strasburg, an Air Force spokesman. The aircraft is based at Edwards where F-22s are tested by the 412th Training Wing.

Officers with the California Highway Patrol saw smoke in the area of Cuddedry Lake, an old emergency landing field for experimental planes, near Edwards, said Officer E. Smith, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol.

“We were told to stay out of the scene and that they were sending a rescue helicopter for the pilot,” Smith said.

Only one other U.S.-owned F-22 has crashed. That plane went down Dec. 20, 2004, during takeoff at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The cause was flight control software errors.

The service has 134 F-22s that cost $133 million each. It is the first fifth-generation fighter jet to be fielded by the U.S.


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Test pilot killed in F-22 crash an Ill. native
Associated Press - March 26, 2009 9:24 AM ET

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A test pilot killed in an F-22 fighter jet crash in the high desert of Southern California is being remembered in his hometown of Belleville.

Forty-9-year-old David Cooley was a test pilot for the jet's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, when he was killed Wednesday in a remote area of the Mohave Desert.

The Air Force is trying to pinpoint what caused the crash.

Cooley was a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003.

He graduated from Belleville East High School, where he was a standout soccer player and was the team captain.

His father, Bill Cooley, is a retired Air Force master sergeant. He says his son flew a wide inventory of aircraft and had been testing the Raptor jet for several years.

Information from: KSDK-TV, http://www.ksdk.com



In Reply to: Re: F-22 Crash posted by Turtle on March 27, 2009 at 5:57:21 PST:

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