Cvairwerks wrote:
Last thing I saw about the F-15s was that the E's were still flying, but everything else was back down for further inspections. There had been a second incident with structural failure within days of the A-D's being returned to flight status. Reports were to the effect that 8 more a/c were found with cracking in the same area along with additional cracks found in another critical location nearby.
Randy can probably fill in the blanks better, as he's plugged in to the -15 world much better than anyone else on WIX.
I have to be very careful with what I say, since the USAF distributes information about ongoing mishap investigations to members of the AF under "safety privilige". Since I can't really remember what has been reported in open sources vs what I've heard at work, I'm choosing my words delicately to keep safe.
Yes, all of the E models are back to flying, and have been throughout December. The E models are designed slightly differently in that area of the airframe -- ironically, a beef-up that was designed to give the F-15E a longer flight-hour lifespan. So, it is only the A-D crowd that is grounded currently (or at least was as of 23 December).
There was not a second "incident"...it is more that the inspections generated by the first grounding did not look at the longeron area that is now suspect. So, the jets had to be grounded AGAIN to look at the longerons -- and that is the area where they have noted the 8 or so jets with defects/cracks.
All of this was occuring while the St Louis accident investigation was still ongoing...so the AF at that point simply decided to keep the jets grounded until the whole fleet could be inspected, the investigation could be completed, and the Boeing and depot engineers could figure out a course of action based on what was found in the investigations.
And that's where we were the last time I checked just before Christmas. Over the last week or so they may have brought the jets back to flying, I'm not sure.