Wow.Capt. Jeff Haney was flying the Air Force's next-generation stealth F-22 Raptor on a routine training mission in Alaska in November 2010 when a sudden malfunction cut off his oxygen completely. Capt. Haney never made a distress call but took his plane into a dive and, a little over a minute later, crashed into the winter wilderness at faster than the speed of sound.After a lengthy investigation, an Air Force Accident Investigation Board could not find the cause of the malfunction but determined "by clear and convincing evidence" that in addition to other factors, Haney was to blame for the crash because he was too distracted by his inability to breathe to fly the plane properly.
Granted, the ability to remain calm without oxygen might save your life, provided that you don't lose control of your plane and auger in or black out and auger in AND the oxygen flow is restored reasonably quickly (like maybe less than 15 seconds, max!)
But blaming an oxygen-less pilot for the crash? It would appear the members of the Air Force Accident Investigation Board need to review some basic human physiology. Wonder if they would get 'too distracted by an inability to breathe to perform their jobs properly', of they could (and maybe did!) write the report in the absence of oxygen - certainly no functioning, oxygen using brain was active when that line was written!
