F22 Hat Crashed 7 Years Ago Flies Again
Expressionless F-22 Airplane pilot's Family unit Vindicated past Stunning Crash Study
'In the end, I really hope Jeff's name will be cleared,' says sis.
Feb. thirteen, 2013 — -- The family of a expressionless F-22 Raptor fighter airplane pilot said they have been vindicated by a damning Pentagon study that says the Air Strength did not accept the bear witness to blame the pilot for the crash that took his life.
Jennifer Haney, sister of the late Capt. Jeff Haney and family spokesperson, told ABC News she was "very happy nigh the [Pentagon Inspector General] pointing out some of the discrepancies that we saw all along" in the Air Strength's account of the November 2010 crash that killed her blood brother.
"In the stop, I really hope Jeff's proper noun volition be cleared," she said. "I never have believed he was to blame."
The Haney crash was the centerpiece of an ABC News' "Nightline" investigation that aired May two, 2012. Haney was killed during a routine grooming mission in Alaska shortly after his aeroplane malfunctioned and his oxygen system shut down completely.
Later on investigating the incident for more than than a year, the Air Force released a crash report in December 2011 that said that while Haney likely suffered a "sense like to suffocation" before he died, he was all the same to blame for the crash considering he was too distracted to fly the plane properly. Peradventure he was struggling to activate the manual emergency oxygen back-upward arrangement, the service said.
In the "Nightline" report, Jennifer Haney said in an exclusive interview that by blaming her brother rather than the $420 million plane, the Air Force showed information technology was more interested in protecting its $79 billion F-22 program than its airmen.
"To them, Jeff was a number, information technology feels like sometimes. But those jets are worth a lot of money," she said then.
WATCH Exclusive: Family unit Demands Truth in Air Force F-22 Pilot's Death
The new Pentagon IG study, the issue of the first major crash investigation review conducted by the IG's office since the mid-1990s and published Monday, says that the Air Strength's conclusions are at times contradictory, incomplete or "not supported by the facts."
In response, the Air Forcefulness said it convened its ain special chore force to review its investigation, and the task forcefulness institute the original conclusions were fairly supported.
"At present they will bicker back and forth, and then we volition take to wait and run into what happens and what changes, if whatsoever, are made to the [Air Force] report," Jennifer Haney said Tuesday.
The F-22 Raptor is America'south single most expensive fighter jet at an estimated $420 1000000 each -- in all a $79 billion-and-counting program that represents function of the Air Forcefulness's plush foray into fifth-generation stealth fighters. The jets, which have nonetheless to be sent on a combat mission, for years were plagued with a mysterious oxygen-related problem in which on rare occasions its pilots would written report experiencing the symptoms of oxygen impecuniousness in mid-flight. The Air Force believes it has solved that problem.
FULL COVERAGE: ABC News' Investigation Into the F-22'due south Fatal Flaws
Air Force Blames Pilot 'By Clear and Convincing Evidence'
On Nov. sixteen, 2010 Haney had only completed a routine training do when a malfunction in the airplane shut downwardly his oxygen system. Capt. Haney never made a distress call but took his plane into a dive and, a little over a infinitesimal later, crashed into the winter wilderness at faster than the speed of sound.
In an Blow Investigation Board (AIB) study, the Air Forcefulness never found the original crusade of the malfunction, just in a Argument of Opinion concluded "by clear and disarming testify, the cause of the mishap was the MP's [mishap pilot's] failure to recognize and initiate a timely dive recovery due to channelized attention, breakdown of visual scan, and unrecognized spatial disorientation."
In an exclusive interview with ABC News in May 2012, Jennifer Haney said she immediately called the Air Force's conclusion into question and believed that, in addition to the original unknown malfunction's role, it seemed obvious her blood brother had blacked out while trying to salvage himself. Therefore, she said, he could not have been responsible for the crash.
"I don't agree with [the Air Force]. I think there was a lot more going on inside that cockpit," Jennifer said. "A comprehend-upwards? I don't know. Just in that location's something... I'd like to think it's easier to arraign Jeff. He's not here to defend himself."
Pierre Sprey, an early on fighter jet designer and song critic of the F-22, said the Air Force's original report on Haney's crash was twisted to shield the aircraft from blame.
"From forepart to dorsum, they're warping every fact yous encounter in that affair, to brand sure they will telephone call it pilot error and not to blame [F-22 manufacturer] Lockheed [Martin] or non to arraign the Air Force or the airplane," Sprey told ABC News in May. "Here you have a superb pilot and an airplane that wasn't designed to accept care of him. And now they're blaming information technology on him and he shouldn't have died in the offset place… The priorities are hardware first, people second."
In the form of its investigation, ABC News obtained an Air Force-made computer simulation of Haney's crash that shows that in the center of Haney's oxygen-deprived dive, he doesn't announced to move the controls for approximately fifteen seconds. Jennifer said that mysterious long pause in the middle of an emergency, forth with the lack of a radio call, is evidence that her brother wasn't awake for at least part of the dive. Steve Ganyard, an ABC News consultant and onetime U.South. Marine Corps fighter airplane pilot, said that subsequently watching the computer simulation, he besides believes Haney was unconscious at least function of the time.
"I remember that [the Air Force's] conclusions are debatable at the very least... I just cannot believe that this airplane pilot, equally practiced every bit he is, knowing that the airplane is in an farthermost position, is still witting," Ganyard said.
Now, the Pentagon Inspector General's function says it agrees.
"It is unclear how sudden incapacitation or unconsciousness was determined to be a non-contributory factor by the AIB [Air Strength Accident Investigation Board], or why levels of partial incapacitation or damage were not considered," the IG study says.
Haney did appear to try to pull out of his dive three seconds before impact -- one second too belatedly to save himself. The Air Force has said that was evidence he was not incapacitated and only disoriented before his death.
The question of Haney's consciousness is listed by the IG as one of v "deficiencies" in the AIB report, others including the uncertainty over the status of Haney'south oxygen mask and his possible attempt to turn on an emergency oxygen organisation.
"The AIB study lacked detailed analysis of several areas," the IG report said.
After the Air Strength was informed of the Inspector General'southward conclusions, the service said it convened a separate job force to review the AIB written report. The task force establish that while some portions of the AIB could take been written more than clearly, the service stands by its original accounting of the cause of the crash.
"That group of experts validated the AIB'southward conclusions," an Air Force spokesperson told ABC News.
The spokesperson said the service is currently rewriting its crash report to clarify certain points raised by the Inspector General'southward report.
Terminal August the plane'southward principal manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, forth with other defense contractors involved in the plane'southward production, settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Haney's widow, Anna. The suit had contended that the companies knowingly provided the Air Force with a "defective" aircraft and that Capt. Jeff Haney was a prey of that decision. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
READ: DOD IG's Technical Assessment Report
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Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/dead-22-pilots-family-vindicated-stunning-crash-report/story?id=18490248
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