Pilots Aren't Guinea Pigs: Ground the F-22 until Dangerous Oxygen Problem Resolved

By DANA LIEBELSON

Two elite pilots that came forward to CBS's "60 Minutes" saying that they refuse to fly the F-22 Raptor because of potentially deadly oxygen-system problems have dramatically changed their positions, according to the Daily Press's HRMilitary.com. The pilots are claiming, through their attorney, that they are now willing to fly the aircraft because the Air Force recently removed a charcoal filter which may have been causing the health issues.

If you think this sounds fishy, you’re not the only one. There have been multiple reports that the Air Force appears to be attempting to intimidate the pilots who spoke out. The about-face shouldn’t quell growing evidence that an unknown problem or problems is making the F-22 too unsafe for pilots to fly. According to Air Force Times, the problems are even affecting maintainers who work on the plane.

The pilots, who despite the health allegations have consistently praised the F-22, should not be blamed for possibly fearing for their livelihoods and changing their public opinions. However, after multiple groundings, validated reports of pilot health and safety problems, a fatal crash due to a malfunction, and now these new reports—it’s time to say enough is enough. The F-22, which has yet to be used in a combat zone—like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya—should be grounded until we know exactly what’s causing the dangerous health and safety problems.

“This is a classic case of the Air Force putting hardware before people, and generals sacrificing pilots in order to avoid embarrassment” Pierre Sprey, who co-designed the F-16 and the A-10 jets, told POGO.

Lawmakers should ensure that the pilots who came forward are fully protected from reprisal now, as Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) has already done, to his great credit. They also owe these and other service members a much-needed upgrade of the laws that protect military whistleblowers, which lag far behind protections for civilian federal workers and many private sector employees.

As you may remember, the F-22 is the most expensive fighter jet (per unit) ever purchased by the U.S. government. Every hour an F-22 flies costs taxpayers around $63,929 (in years it is not grounded). The whole fleet cost $77.4 billion, or a casual $412 million per jet (in FY 2011 dollars). POGO has outlined the F-22’s cost and procurement problems for years. In 2010, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped procurement of the jet thanks to the gigantic cost of each F-22—a major victory for taxpayers.

The F-22 fleet was grounded twice in 2011 because of problems with the aircraft’s oxygen system. The grounding was lifted, but the cause was never determined. POGO’s Winslow Wheeler, Director of the Straus Military Reform Project said that “there was good reason to ground the fleet then—there’s even more of a reason now.”

According to Sprey, Navy Safety Center figures show that the incident rate of “hypoxia-like” symptoms has more than quadrupled since the last grounding was lifted. Hypoxia occurs when the brain can’t get enough oxygen, which leads to severe disorientation. F-22 pilot Josh Wilson told “60 Minutes” that he had such severe in-flight hypoxia, doctors put him in a hyperbaric chamber upon landing.

Pilot Jeremy Gordon told the program that among F-22 pilots, there’s a phenomenon called “the raptor cough”—where “the vast majority will be coughing a lot of the time.” Gordon also pointed to other latent problems pilots have: like vertigo and dizziness when they go to bed.  These symptoms also suggest that the problem may go beyond simple oxygen deprivation; the possibility of toxins in the air system must be considered.

According to an ABC News report, the Air Force reported that there have been at least 25 cases since 2008 of F-22 pilots experiencing various symptoms. Additionally, the deadly crash that occurred in November 2010 during a training exercise in Alaska has been attributed to a malfunction in the jet’s On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS).

Still, the Air Force initially blamed the oxygen-deprived pilot for the crash, not the F-22. It has back-tracked somewhat since.

So what’s depriving these pilots of oxygen? That’s the problem—no one knows. Sprey hypothesizes that: “[The fact that] so many F-22 pilots have persistent coughing and vertigo means that, even though a small fraction of incidents could be due to oxygen deprivation or carbon monoxide, most of the F-22 incidents have to be due to some toxin in the F-22 breathing air supply that has persistent after effects and that is NOT present in other OBOGS, such as the F-18's air supply.”

Some of these toxins could be hydraulic fluid, combustion byproducts, off-gassing glues, overheated plastics or composites—or what Sprey believes to be the most likely candidate—stealth coatings, which are “freshly reapplied on the F-22 all the time.”

That’s one possible explanation, but ultimately, the cause has yet to be determined.

And while the Air Force is definitely implementing safety measures and claiming that it’s addressing concerns, it’s doing so while keeping the pilots in the planes—and it doesn’t know how or when the problem occurs or how long it’s going to take to figure it out.

"I believe we are making significant progress toward an answer," said Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command, in a statement. "I don't want to characterize how far or when because I don't own the progress of science."

It should be reiterated that in order to fly an F-22, pilots have to be the best of the best, with superb pilot skills, command of the highly complex flying and avionics systems, and unwavering dedication. But of those 200 top pilots certified to fly the jet, there are several beyond just Major Jeremy Gordon and Captain Josh Wilson who have silently expressed their profound concern by taking out additional life insurance for fear of the aircraft being their undoing.

The F-22 program should never have been allowed to come to this. It’s time to stop holding the aircraft above its pilots—the F-22 should be grounded now and for as long as it takes to understand and fix the problem. It’s non-appearance in war makes this a task we can clearly take. 

Dana Liebelson is POGO's Beth Daley Impact Fellow.

Follow @dliebelson

Image via @AbsolutSpaceGuy.

Comments

[Bryan Rahija]

Concerned: Great question. Not sure about oxygen problems but the F-35 has certainly had its share of troubles, and the few planes that have already been delivered to the Pentagon have been grounded before.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/30/3698876/ejection-seat-problems-ground.html

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-fleet-grounded-after-electrical-subsystem-failure-360325/

[Concerned]

Does the F-35 have the same "oxygen" problem?

[Dfens]

The really sad thing about the F-22 is the fact that the pilots have taken a stand against the one system that is actively killing them, but their is so much else wrong with that cockpit that potentially could kill them, and probably will kill them but not until they are in battle. Chances are you'll never hear about the rest of the crap, not until the F-22 is no longer the Air Force's top fighter. Naturally then it will really be too late to fix these problems. But, hey, let's continue to pay our contractors more to provide crappy weapons than we do if they provide good weapons on-time and on-budget, then we can all stand around and wonder why new weapons take so long and cost so much. Yeah, that's really working out well for us, isn't it?

[Kelly Rogers]

This is outlandish. These men willing to defend our country and are subjected to this. In this time of money woes the F-22 is an archaic dinosaur and needs to be gone of the way of dinosaurs. It will help the deficit and thus our security

[AFLTCMIKE]

This is a letter I wrote to the Honorable Senator McCain who did not respond back to us:

Dear Senator McCain

My wife and I are writing you to express our personal concern for our son’s safety. Our son flies the F-22 Raptor out of Elmendorf AFB Alaska. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments in the Air Force. In twelve years of service, he performed three tours of duty in Iraq as an F-16 pilot. He continues to serve his country honorable as an F-22 pilot.

We know his job is very dangerous, however, after watching “60 Minutes” we do not accept the statements of the Air Force that they cannot find or fix the problem. I worked 30 years in the Department of Defense mostly in Classified Programs. I saw incredible problems solved with a can do attitude.

Senator McCain, something is poisoning those pilots!

Thank God we are in relative peace time in the USA. We have the luxury of time to address and truly fix the F-22 problem. If we were at war, that would be a whole different story. But, we are not at war!

I know you can demand the Air Force to ground those planes and/or limit their use until they can find the problem. Senator McCain, we are talking about the finest military pilots anywhere in the world and we have lost one.

In conclusion, my wife and I want the plane fixed. We were very disappointed when you went on national TV and belittled the mission our son is being asked to do. These airmen and their planes are a national asset sir! The plane may not have been in combat, but our son has!

[Pastwikowski]

Those will be paying for the $1 trillion F-35 Program, as out debt exceeds $20 trillion, will dispute Gates decision to cancel production of the F-22,F-16,F-15. His financial and acquisition ineptness are well documented in the the GAO Reports on ERPS and the appropriate depiction of the program as "Acquisition Malpractice".
Any student of the history of the F-22 development will know that Congress interrupted the acquisition process at least five times (there were 8 WAVES), and every time major funding is changed in a large development program, we taxpayers pay more for "rediscovery of the learning curve". DCMA documented those affects in the late '90's.
Force requirements dictate what airplanes can be used for different tasks.

[Dfens]

With regard to the maintainers who are having breathing problems around the airplane, this may be a related problem to the issues the pilots are having, or it may be something entirely different. It is hard to say at this point when so little is known.

One historical fact that comes to mind, now that these aircraft are finally more or less operational is that both Boeing and Lockheed had problems with workers in their composites manufacturing facilities getting sick when they were laying up parts for both the B-2 and F-22. The volatile compounds that caused these workers to get sick do not entirely disappear when these composites are cured, and when the materials are heated, such as they would be when the engines are run, the outgassing rates could be sufficiently high to cause problems for a long time after the parts are in service.

Another thing a friend recently reminded me of is the fact that stealth coatings are routinely treated as being very toxic. I have no idea what is in these materials, and information on their composition is a closely held military secret. Again, these materials may continue to outgass harmful substances, and the rate of outgassing would likely increase if they were subjected to the heat of an engine run. The B-2 wouldn't have as much of a problem with this kind of heating because they don't travel at supersonic speeds and the engines are a relatively small part of those aircraft.

[Inthedmv]

Good thing the F-22 doesn't have a mission, or we'd really be screwed...

[Dfens]

I commend POGO for taking this position with regard to the F-22. The airplane should not be held above the value of the pilot. Unfortunately, the airplane has a bureaucracy consisting of thousands of cheerleaders for the airplane. The pilots have no one who speaks for them.

The Air Force could modify these aircraft to use an older cryogenic liquid oxygen storage system. It would not have the long mission advantages of the current system, but would make the aircraft combat worthy without putting the pilot's life in constant danger. They could modify the fleet for the older system and keep a couple of aircraft as flying testbeds for the new style OBOGS. Once the system has truely been perfected, then and only then could it be put back on the entire fleet.

On a personal side note, I believe it was a mistake to use bleed air off the engine as a source of compressed air for the OBOGS system. Boeing in their new 787 has gone with a dedicated, stand alone compressor as their life support air source. This approach was not common in the mid 1980s when what became the F-22 program started, but with the increasingly optimized compressor design of engines it is commonly considered now. Thus it is well past time this kind of isolated system was considered for the F-22. Such a system would likely fix the contamination issues the F-22 air system is plagued with.