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F-22 Raptor Jet Crashes In Mohave Desert - Pilot Dies
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by Edmund Jenks | March 25, 2009 at 02:15 pm
1264 views | 36 Recommendations | 5 comments
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The $65 billion F-22 program is embattled, with some opponents contending that a different warplane under development, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is more versatile and less costly at $80 million per plane.
The U.S. is committed to 183 F-22s, down from the original plan laid out in the 1980s to build 750.
Its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., says there are 95,000 jobs at 1,000 companies connected to the F-22.
One of the U.S. Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California.
There was no immediate word on whether the pilot ejected.
The F-22 Raptor crashed 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base, Pentagon spokesman Gary Strassburg said. He had no information about the area where the jet crashed.
Rescue crews were en route and the status of the pilot was unknown, said Air Force Maj. David Small at the Pentagon.
Small said the jet, assigned to Edwards' 412th Test Wing, was on a test mission but he did not know its nature.
The radar-evading F-22s each cost $140 million and are designed for air dominance. The warplanes can carry air-to-air missiles but are capable of ground attack as well.
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UPDATE:
Lockheed Martin says one of its test pilots was killed in the crash of an Air Force F-22 fighter jet in the Southern California desert. The pilot was identified as 49-year-old David Cooley, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003.
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F22 RAPTOR Fighter Jet Crashes Near Edwards Air Force Base 25th MARCH 2009
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Amaad
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 14:26 on March 25th, 2009
I hope the pilot made it out ok.
at 16:47 on March 25th, 2009
A Pentagon spokesman says the jet crashed 35 miles northeast of the base at a location six miles north of Harbor Dry Lakebed. The Bureau of Land Management identifies the region as Harper Dry Lake, a vast and empty expanse of sometimes marshy flat land.
It is the second time an F-22 has crashed. In December 2004, an F-22 crashed at Edwards during a test flight, with the pilot safely ejecting, according to the Air Force.
at 16:20 on March 25th, 2009
wow, i heard a Jet fighter crashed here in southern California, didn't think it was an F-22!
it was most likely pilot error.
at 16:36 on March 25th, 2009
At least it did not crash in a residential area.
at 17:33 on March 25th, 2009
UPDATE:
Lockheed Martin says one of its test pilots was killed in the crash of an Air Force F-22 fighter jet in the Southern California desert. The pilot was identified as 49-year-old David Cooley, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003.