Air Force Pilot and F-22 Fighter Missing

Fox News ^ | November 17, 2010 | Justin Fishel

[SunTzuWu]

An Air Force pilot and his stealth fighter assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska went missing Tuesday evening. The F-22 Raptor was on a routine training mission when it lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time.

[SunTzuWu]

Has anyone from AK heard any updates?

[Eye of Unk]

All I heard was some C-130’s flying over my house last night, and I am 11 miles north of Wasilla.

Kinda odd it was a lone Raptor, the training sorties are always two aircraft if not four.

[rahbert]

Hopefully not a defector headed to China...

[DuncanWaring]

The Air Force has 137 of them in its fleet.

Errrr, make that "136".

[Thunder90]

Look in Siberia for the plane...

[GonzoGOP]

Hopefully not a defector headed to China...

Or Russia. I imagine they would pay a lot of money for an F-22. And how do you track an aircraft that doesn't show up on radar.

[FES0844]

Wish he were on his way to Mecca.

[budwiesest]

Sarah will find it.

[Kinzua]

My Friend lives just off the “fishhook” road between Wasilla and Palmer. I spent 3 weeks up there this spring.
Beautiful area you’re in!! I’ll ask him if he knows where the Raptor is:)

[Eye of Unk]

I doubt any Raptors can be stolen, there must be an anti-hijack mode in the software, I would think there must have been a decision at some point to prevent this aircraft from ever being stolen. That any attemp would cause it to land or even destroy itself.

Its probably a cold weather issue, icing maybe, they will probably find the pilot cold but alive, its not really really cold yet.

[Cheetahcat]

“Hopefully not a defector headed to China...”

I agree or to Russia.

[OldNavyVet]

Accidents happen ... A fact of life in high-tech aviation. Let’s hope the pilot survived.

[Eye of Unk]

Thats my favorite motorcycle riding route from Wasilla to the junction to Palmer-Fishhook road. Nice little bar there that has awesome food.

[ken5050]

IIRC, years ago an A-10 pilot committed suicide by crashing his plane in the Rockies ( Colorado?) After take-off, he turn off his transponder, an flew low level until,he ran out of fuel, then crashed..Any change this could be a similar type of incident..pilot instability??

[Boiler Plate]

So this how the Russians are going to get their Gen 5 fighter out on time and under budget. Kinda like the Yu-4 and the B-29.

[struwwelpeter]

Alaska was swallowed a lot of good aircraft... and men.

[struwwelpeter]

Alaska has swallowed a lot of good aircraft... and men.

[Cowman]

Rivit Amber

[Joe Boucher]

Defected to Russia.
Would surely be accepted as a hero there if he did.

[Ramius]

Why all the assumptions that the pilot must be a traitor or some kind of nutcase? Is this what we’ve come to believe about our servicemen?

Alaska is the plane crash capital of the nation. Why is it so hard to believe, as the first and most likely option, that he suffered some kind of technical or mechanical problem and the plane went down?

Hopefully, he was able to eject and he’s sitting next to a little campfire waiting to be picked up by a rescue chopper.