F-22 in Pearl Harbor event scrapes tail on landing

HONOLULU An F-22 fighter jet used in a flyover during a remembrance ceremony at Pearl Harbor scraped its tail on a runway as it landed, causing $1.8 million in damage.

A Hawaii National Guard spokesman says nobody was hurt in the incident Friday morning on the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Newly-published report of Pearl Harbor attack

Lt. Col. Charles Anthony says the jet was coming back to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam from a training exercise after taking part in the ceremony. He says the "mishap" happened roughly 90 minutes after the flyover.

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Pearl Harbor attack anniversary

In jet terms, the damage to the F-22's horizontal stabilizers may be little more than a pricey fender-bender.

Anthony says it costs roughly $147 million to make one F-22 fighter.

[hvypetals]

just throw some of that afghan heroin money at it. problem solved.

[dirkymelon]

"...like a good neighbor...State Farm is there..."

[KansasCity-2012]

The F-22 has always been a difficult plane to control when it enters ground effect on a landing. It is not a stable plane that will fly straight and level when the pilot takes his hands off the stick. Pilot errors are always going to be part of the ownership experience with these planes.

If they ever go to war with one of these, it will come out of battle a winner.

The 1.8 million dollar tail damage price tag is comparable to the cost of the missiles it is designed to launch in battle. Big impressive numbers makes sophisticated performance expensive. We don't own many of them.

At this time, while we are in one of the longest wars in our nation's history that doesn't justify its' use, taxpayers are understandably wary and critical of its' existence.

War planners come up with all kinds of weapons to develop and scripts to follow, but our nation's enemies have different war plans for us, if we are not wise enough to resist.

The loss of the F-117 Stealth Fighter in the Bosnia-Serbia war shattered public confidence in war planning.

[larkin1974]

If you cant land it, dont fly it!

[rwsmith29456]

Fly jets and stuff happens. It could have been a routine training flight.

[seadoosnipe]

Let me see if I can absorb your comment, fly jets and stuff happens... NO, IT DOES NOT!... These guys are professionals and trained to the highest standards when it comes to being careless and creating damage that wil cose US (not him) to repair his toy. What I don't understand, these new Raptors have the most intelligent computer systems that not only warn of the problem about to take place, but will take control of the plane for a few seconds to avoid a problem like "scrapingi" the tail. So, how did it happen? Did he override the computer system so he could fly it like a "hotdogger" on purpose? I think a full investigation should be done on how that happened and get rid of him if he did in fact bypass all computer safety controls. He wasn't a 1930's bi-plane.

[Montana5]

This pilot is the sure fire career path to "officer-in-charge of the base gym".