Technical binder sucked into
F-15C jet
engine costs Air Force over $1 million
By Mark Oliva, Okinawa bureau
KADENA AIR
BASE — A misplaced technical binder sucked through the engine of a F-15C Eagle
fighter jet will cost the Air Force more than $1 million in damage and repairs.
The Class A
mishap happened after take-off in November. Class A mishaps include incidents involving
death or damages exceeding $1 million.
"The
cost to exchange two F-15 engine cores with two from a U.S.-based repair depot exceeds $1
million," said Masao Doi, spokesman for Kadena Air Base.
Although no
final determination of the actual damage costs has been made, the repair costs could
exceed the cap of $1 million. A lesser cost would allow the incident to be re-categorized
to a lesser class.
An accident
investigation board faulted Airman 1st Class William J. Heimann Jr., the F-15’s crew
chief, for failing "to adequately finish preparing the aircraft for scheduled
mission," the report stated. The documents were stowed on the plane’s nose
landing gear door, an unusual storage location that hid them from view of safety
inspections. The incident occurred Nov. 3, 2000.
The pilot
was cleared of any responsibility for the incident.
The pilot
left Kadena at 8:25 a.m. for a routine training flight to Korea during Exercise Foal
Eagle. He was to return to Kadena following the mission.
The pilot
performed an afterburner takeoff, the summary stated. "Immediately after raising the
landing gear handle, [the pilot] heard a loud bang," the report said.
Noticing
engine temperatures climbing, the pilot declared an in-flight emergency, and landed safely
back at Kadena.
Maintenance
crews discovered a foreign object had damaged engines and found debris in the nose wheel
well and right main landing door, the report noted. The debris consisted of paper and
plastic sleeves from the aircraft’s maintenance binder.
The
investigation uncovered that flight binders for F-15s are normally held by crew chiefs or
stored with the crew chief’s equipment and tools. Only missions where pilots do not
plan on returning to base are the forms stored on the aircraft.
Investigators
pointed to several human errors during pre-flight preparations that led to the incident.
Heimann ordered Airman Michael W. Gates Jr., the launch assistant, to store the binder.
Gates testified he "placed the binder and forms on the nose landing gear forward drag
brace next to the nose gear safety pin."
It was a
method Gates learned during technical school training, but one where engines weren’t
running. For a training environment, the Air Force deemed the nose landing gear to be an
acceptable place to stow the binder. But informal polling by the investigators found
Kadena crewmen rarely, if ever, stow binders forward of the engine intakes. Additionally,
investigators found the launch assistant never touched flight binders during local
training.
Ultimately,
investigators found Heimann at fault. Investigators concluded that he moved the binder
from the nose landing gear to the landing gear door. They said Heimann did this to reset
switches and pull safety pins, tasks requiring use of both hands.
The report
made no indication of punitive action or any order for retraining. Accident investigators
did, however, cite "inadequate training" as a significant factor.
Investigators
noted, "Unfortunately, unit-level training also does not specifically emphasize the
need to store the aircraft forms aft of the intake engines."
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