The Air Force has announced the end its 11-day grounding of F-35 aircraft at Luke Air Force Base, following problems discovered with the plane’s oxygen system.
Flying operations the aircraft will resume Wednesday, the Air Force announced, adding it has found no specific cause for the oxygen problems that had occurred during flights in May and early June. The grounding affected only the F-35s based at Luke, and had no effect on the Navy or Marine Corps variants of the aircraft.
“Our active duty, reserve, and international team has worked tirelessly to better understand the physiological events,” said Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, the 56th Fighter Wing commander, in a statement. “This is a complex challenge that necessitates multidimensional solutions across a series of steps to get back to a full operating capability. We are confident that this initial step with the criteria our team developed will allow us to return to flying F-35s safely and to continue building the future of airpower.”
As technicians continue to gather data on the problem, pilots flying F-35s from Luke will avoid the altitudes at which the five “physiological events” occurred, increase the minimum levels for backup oxygen to be used on the flights, and give pilots the option of wearing sensors when flying to collect data.
Oxygen problems on the F-35, along with those discovered on F/A-18 Hornets and T-45 trainers, have gotten the attention of lawmakers. Sen. John McCain cited problems with all three aircraft on Monday.
“I look forward to reviewing the results of the investigations into these incidents, as well as recommendations for remedial measures,” McCain said. “The Senate Armed Services Committee will continue to exercise vigorous oversight of this issue and, if warranted, address it in the National Defense Authorization Act.”
The Navy announced last week that systems designed to provide breathing air and pressurization for pilots of the T-45 Goshawk and F-18 Hornet were the prime suspects in the oxygen deprivation incidents.
A safety review found that pilots are at risk of breathing contaminated air from the on-board oxygen generation system used on the aircraft, while aging parts and inadequate testing of the fleet have caused failures in the cockpit environmental control system. Yet the review could not find the underlying cause of the problem.
