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US grounds F-15 jets after crash
An F-15 jet
F-15s have been involved in several crashes recently
The US Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of F-15 fighter jets after a jet crashed on a training mission in Missouri last week.

Use of the planes will be restricted until a possible structural failure in the aircraft has been investigated, an air force spokesman said.

The Air Force has 676 F-15s in service, including a number in Afghanistan.

F-15s have had several accidents this year, although the current suspension is linked only to last week's crash.

Preliminary inquiries suggest that the F-15 may have been affected by a mechanical failure.

Ejected pilot

The plane belonged to the Missouri Air National Guard and was being used in a training exercise when it crashed near the city of Salem, Missouri.

It is thought that the plane, which dated from 1980, started to break up in the air. The pilot ejected, suffering a broken arm and minor cuts and bruises.

The Air Force now says hundreds of jets are to undergo urgent safety checks, including those on mission in Afghanistan. The planes are no longer used in Iraq.

Orders to ground an entire fleet of planes are not common. Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Bently said that she did not know when the step had last been taken.

Although the decision to ground the F-15s was based solely on the Missouri crash, the jets have been involved in three other accidents in recent months.

F-15s have been a mainstay of US air power since 1975, but the Air Force stopped buying them in 2004, intending to replace them gradually with the more up-to-date F-22 Raptor, made by Lockheed Martin.

Boeing - the manufacturer of the F-15 - is still producing them for other customers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7081737.stm

Japan grounds F-15 fighters after crash in U.S.
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13:39, November 06, 2007



Japan's air force has grounded its F-15 fighter jets following a crash of the same type of aircraft in Missouri, the United States last week, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday.

The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) has suspended flights of F-15 aircraft since Sunday afternoon, Kyodo News quoted Ishiba as saying. The suspension will last until the cause of the U.S. crash is determined, he said.

The minister also said that F-4 fighters will deal with airspace incursion "for the time being," since the ASDF has also grounded F-2 fighters in the wake of a recent crash of an ASDF plane of the model at Nagoya.

A Missouri Air National Guard F-15C jet crashed last Friday while training in air combat maneuvers over southern Missouri, the United States. The pilot ejected and suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken arm. The U.S. Air Force then grounded nearly all its F-15 fighters Monday, as preliminary findings showed there might have been structural failure.

According to an earlier report from Kyodo, a planned joint drill between the U.S. Air Force and Japan's Air Self-Defense Force at Komatsu base in Ishikawa Prefecture, in which F-15s from Kadena were to take part, has also been postponed.


Source: Xinhua

Japan Grounds F-15 Jets After U.S. Crash, Suspension (Update1)

By Kyunghee Park and Masumi Suga
Enlarge Image/Details

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's air force grounded its entire fleet of Boeing Co. F-15 jets after a crash of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C fighter on Nov. 2 prompted the U.S. to suspend use of the aircraft.

All 200 F-15 fighter-bombers at Japan's Air Self-Defense Force were rested starting Nov. 4 after receiving the U.S. notice, defense ministry spokeswoman Yukiko Takahashi said in a telephone interview in Tokyo today. No decision has been taken on the duration of the ban, she said.

The U.S. Air Force yesterday grounded its fleet of more than 700 F-15 fighter-bombers, including those flying missions in Afghanistan, citing concerns about ``airworthiness.'' The suspension was expanded to bases in England, Hawaii, Japan and the Middle East.

``Boeing has offered its assistance to the U.S. Air Force as they investigate the mishap,'' Boeing spokesman Mark Hooper said in an e-mailed statement from Hong Kong today. ``It would, however, be inappropriate for us to comment on an on-going investigation.''

In Asia, Boeing has F-15s in operation or has completed sales in Singapore, South Korea and Japan, Boeing said.

Air-to-Air Fighter

The U.S. Air Force said in a press release on Nov. 4 it was suspending only ``non-mission-critical flight operations,'' while a safety board determines the cause.

The F-15, introduced in 1975, is the primary U.S. air-to-air fighter. The aircraft is part of the aerial arsenal of F-16 fighters, A-10 ground-attack aircraft, B-1B bombers, aircraft- carrier-based F-18 fighters and drones supporting ground troops in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

F-15 deliveries to Japan's air force started in 1980 and the the fleet was upgraded in 2004, defense minister Takahashi said. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. was the main contractor for the aircraft, the company said on its Web site.

Japanese police is investigating Mitsubishi Heavy's plant near Nagoya, central Japan, after an F-2 support fighter crashed at the airport on Oct. 31. The factory builds and maintains the aircraft for the military.

Mitsubishi Heavy, Asia's biggest aerospace company, closed down 1.4 percent to 565 yen, the lowest in more than nine months, in Tokyo. The stock has advanced 4.4 percent this year, compared with a 6.3 percent decline in Japan's benchmark Topix Index.

Singapore Fighters

Singapore ordered 12 more F-15SG jets from Boeing last month, exercising an option when it placed an order for the first 12 in 2005. Calls and e-mail queries to Singapore's defense ministry weren't immediately returned.

South Korea's air force, which ordered 40 F-15Ks in 2002, held discussions with Boeing and said there will be no change to the plan, according to a spokesman today, who declined to be identified.

South Korea will take delivery of 30 jets by the end of this year and the remaining 10 in 2008. Engines made by General Electric Co., the world's biggest maker of jet engines, are used in the jets.

In May South Korea said it will review a plan to buy 20 more jet fighters from Boeing, purchases required to step up defense capabilities. The 20 will be in addition to the 40 jets the Asian country ordered in 2002.

Keep Alive

The South Korean order five years ago allowed Boeing to keep the F-15 in production until 2008, four years longer than planned. The 30-year-old fighter had been considered almost obsolete after losing out to newer planes in late 1990s.

Singapore bought F-15SGs to replace a squadron of A-4SU Super Skyhawks. Singapore's Air Force flies Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 Fighting Falcon, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s F-5E/F Tiger IIs and McDonnell Douglas Corp.'s A4SU Super Skyhawks.

The U.S. is phasing out the F-15 with the new Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 fighter. The Pentagon has limited the Air Force to buying 183 of the new aircraft instead of the more than 300 the service says it needs.

Questions about the mishap should be directed to the SAF/PA Media desk at +703-695-0640, according to the Boeing statement.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kyunghee Park in Seoul at kpark3@bloomberg.net ; Masumi Suga in Tokyo at msuga@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: November 6, 2007 02:03 EST

Boas,

Mais de 1000 aeronaves no chão e ninguem comenta?~É uma das razões de ter dito que o Brasil, deverá ter pelo menos dois vectores. Não apostar todas as fichas num só.

[[]]'s

soultrain, está tudo a navegar na Maionese, ninguém tem tempo para assuntos sérios

Ou então foram invadir a Venezuela e deixaram os tugas aqui sozinhos ao abandono

Mas a FAB sempre seguiu este preceito de não colocar todas os ovos no mesmo cesto. Sempre tivemos dois fornecedores: EUA e França.

Se com dois fornecedores a coisa nunca foi uma maravilha imaginem com um terceiro...

Só lamento pelos Japoneses, eles infelizmente não tem pra onde correr. Não podem desenvolver suas armas e para sempre serão encoleirados pelos EUA...

PS: Creio que o baixo interesse pelo tópico não seja pelo assunto específicamente ou pelo clima [Full helman's] com a possível compra de caças e sim por causa do texto em Inglês. São poucos os usuários que sabem inglês no fórum...

Abraços!

O procedimento de interromper temporariamente operações com aeronaves militares depois de acidentes como estes é comum em diversos países, ao menos até que seja esclarecida as causas do acidente, não vejo nada demais.

Sempre fui favorável a utilização de no máximo 02 vetores, o famoso hi-low mix....

Sei, nada demais estarem cerca de 1000 caças de primeira linha "grouded"!?

Desculpe Plinio, mas esse branqueamento é demais e não é sério. É um assunto serissímo, não é um caça que teve o IOC agora, está há muitos anos em Operação.

Já houve muitos, mas muitos acidentes com F-16 e nunca se fez isto.

[[]]'s

Se fossem Sukois ou Migs estava tudo a deitar foguetes, deixa lá Soultrain

P44 escreveu:Se fossem Sukois ou Migs estava tudo a deitar foguetes, deixa lá Soultrain

Aí concordo!!!

soultrain escreveu:Boas,

Mais de 1000 aeronaves no chão e ninguem comenta?~É uma das razões de ter dito que o Brasil, deverá ter pelo menos dois vectores. Não apostar todas as fichas num só.

[[]]'s

A Lock Mart acabou de receber uma noticia de Natal antecipada... O Pentágono vai andar a gritar por mais F-22...

Sintra escreveu:

soultrain escreveu:Boas,

Mais de 1000 aeronaves no chão e ninguem comenta?~É uma das razões de ter dito que o Brasil, deverá ter pelo menos dois vectores. Não apostar todas as fichas num só.

[[]]'s

A Lock Mart acabou de receber uma noticia de Natal antecipada... O Pentágono vai andar a gritar por mais F-22...

Nada como se ter dinheiro,amigo Sintra!

Tudo um dia acaba, até os F-15, ja esta na hora de seguir os passos do irmão mais velho e se aposentar tambem.

Um grande caça.

Isso é um tanto grave...ainda mais se o defeito for uma falha estrutural gravíssima...sorte deles que não estão sendo usados em uma guerra.
Por essas e outras que era bom ter um Hi-Low por essas bandas

zela escreveu:Isso é um tanto grave...ainda mais se o defeito for uma falha estrutural gravíssima...sorte deles que não estão em guerra.
Por essas e outras que era bom ter um Hi-Low por essas bandas

Concordo contigo,Amigo Zela!Bem que poderíamos ter Gripen/Rafale,ou Typhoon,o Su-35BM,F-35 que estaríamos muito bem servidos!