The Air Force is resuming routine flights of B-1B bombers after a two-week grounding prompted by a malfunction of the aircraft ejection system during an emergency landing last month.
“The stand-down allowed the command time to thoroughly evaluate the egress components and determine potential risks before returning to flight,” said a release from the Air Force Global Strike Command.
The command said B-1Bs will resume flight operations this week.
The Air Force provided no details about the results of the investigation of the May 1 emergency landing of a B-1B at Midland International Air and Space Port in Texas.
“We have high confidence that the fleet’s egress systems are capable and the fleet is ready to return to normal flight operations,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Bussiere, 8th Air Force Commander, responsible for the Air Force bomber force.
Photos of the incident last month seem to show that at least one of its four cockpit escape hatches had blown, without any deployment of the ejection seats.
“The safety stand down allowed time for the command to conduct component-level testing and determine potential risks,” said Linda Frost, a spokesperson for Global Strike Command, in response to questions from the Washington Examiner.
“The results of these tests, combined with redundancies in the egress system, provided sufficient data and high confidence to return to normal flight operations.”
