Pilot error determined to be the cause of November F-22 crash

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Gremlin29

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
LeGrig said:
In case those above determined the pilot error, emergency oxigen activation is not designed for fighter aircraft! We should understand that the pilot was enough trained and experienced not to be in error due to night flight and so on. Or, intensive training should be performed in activating this system (I mean: is it normal to complicate the pilot tasks? The computer on board are monitoring O2, so that it may be programmed...).
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I totally agree that the aircraft should not be overly complicated, and an automatic emergency system would have prevented the problem however switching over to emergency oxygen shouldn't have been a problem to begin with, really a very basic emergency procedure. I don't recall what platform he was flying before, but there is something called primacy, when we react to a situation we often fall back to reacting in the way we first learned. Perhaps the emergency O2 in his previous platform was not located in the exact same spot hence his trouble activating it. Regardless it's an unfortunate loss of life.
 
C

Cailet

Member
colay said:
Now this is puzzling since the official report from the investigation seemed pretty clear that the pilot's actions/inactions directly led to the crash. Yet, here we have the AF chief saying the pilot was not being blamed for the crash. So should I just attribute this to semantics?

Air Force Didn't Blame Dead Pilot, Despite Report, Gen. Says - ABC News
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At a guess they're trying to make a distinction between the pilot doing something stupid and screwing up (playing chicken with a mountain or something) and the pilot failing to respond correctly to the emergency in the cockpit.

Basically Cat. Haney could (arguably should) have been able to activate his emergency oxygen supply and abort the mission to return home but made poor decisions or failed to execute the correct decision (due to the various factors discussed in this thread) and was distracted into losing his situational awareness in the event.

I guess the nearest civilian equivalent would be failing to brake when someone pulls out in front of you. Is it your fault that you crashed? Not really. Could you have avoided or lessened the impact of the crash? Yes. And your insurers will no doubt use it to get out of paying out.

It's a tragedy and the last thing the Air Force wants is to generate controversy by appearing callous though it may have been better (PR-wise) to have let it lie.
 
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