Air Force blames pilot for F-22 crash - despite plane fault that left him with no oxygen

Stealth fighter fleet plagued by oxygen-supply problems

Report says pilot too distracted by inability to breathe



A fighter pilot who crashed and died after an engine malfunction left him with no oxygen is to blame for the accident, a military inquiry has decided.

U.S. Air Force Captain Jeff 'Bong' Haney was flying at Mach 1.1 over the Alaskan wilderness last year when his F-22 fighter jet flipped and slammed into the ground.

Crash investigators found a malfunction had cut of Captain Haney's air supply but blamed the crash on his lack of attention, saying he was too distracted by his inability to breathe.

'Channelized attention': An Air Force crash investigation has found that Captain Jeff Haney's fatal crash was his fault after he lost concentration when his air supply failed

Since their roll-out F-22 Raptors - the most advanced and pricey fighter jets used by the U.S. military - have been plagued with oxygen system problems, and have never been flown in combat.

Captain Haney had been returning to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, west of Anchorage, after a training flight on November 16 last year when the accident happened.

According to a report by the Air Force's accident investigation board, the plane suffered 'an engine bleed air leak malfunction', cutting off the air supply Captain Haney's oxygen mask.

To save himself and the plane, the pilot should have engaged an 'emergency oxygen system' by pulling a green ring beneath his left thigh, the report said.

Instead, unable to breathe, Captain Haney appeared to remain in control for a few seconds, taking the plane to a lower altitude in an attempt to get himself some air.

But his jet, still moving at more than the speed of sound, somehow lurched into a steep roll and plummeted towards the ground in a dive he was too slow to pull out of, the report said.

Three seconds later, Captain Haney, a veteran and award-winning airman, crashed into a valley in the snow-covered Talkeetna Mountains. The jet was obliterated and he was killed instantly.

Despite acknowledging the F-22's critical system failure, the Air Force's detailed, 35-page report, released yesterday, blamed the crash on Captain Haney's 'channelized attention'.

It said that he was too distracted by his inability to breathe and should have focused on switching on the jet's emergency oxygen system and pulling out of the dive.

'During the [sortie], the [pilot] most likely experienced a sense similar to suffocation when airflow to the oxygen mask stopped,' the report says.

'This was likely the [pilot's] first experience under such physiological duress. The unique and added stress of the breathing restriction contributed to the [pilot's] channelized attention.'

But the crash is just the latest setback to hit the problem plagued F-22, each of which costs the U.S. taxpayer an estimated $412 million.

Earlier this year, a safety investigation grounded the entire fleet of F-22s for more than four months after over a dozen incidents since 2008 in which pilots reported oxygen problems.

The Air Force investigated the problem, but it was never solved and the military evenutally allowed the Raptors back into service.

In all, the F-22 has experienced seven major crashes with two deaths since it entered service in 2005.

Pricey: An F-22 Raptor flies near Edwards Air Force Base, California. The jets have been plagued by air-supply problems

Built by Lockheed Martin, the sleek, diamond-winged F-22 stealth fighter jet is considered is considered the world's most advanced fighter jet.

It is so advanced that Congress has banned its sale overseas because it was deemed that the technology involved is too sensitive to share with other countries.

Exceptionally agile thanks to state-of-the-art engines with thrust-vectoring nozzles that can move up and down, the jets have the ability to cruise at more than 1.5 times the speed of sound without using its afterburner.

It's also packed with cutting-edge radar and sensors, allowing a F-22 pilota to identify, track and shoot an enemy aircraft before they have even been detected.

However, the planes have never actually been used in combat, despite the Air Force involvement in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.