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F-15 groundings likely to last through January

It is likely to be long January for F-15 Eagle pilots.

Don’t be surprised if the Air Force’s 442 F-15s stay grounded until the end of the month, Air Force officials are saying.

While an accident investigation board has completed its field work into the reasons an F-15C broke up in mid-flight on Nov. 2, resulting the in the service-wide grounding, the investigation’s results may not be finalized until the end of January.

The investigation’s findings are going through a technical review and still must be presented to the head of Air Combat Command, Gen. John Corley, an ACC spokesman said. Corley has said he won’t allow the jets back in the sky until he has reviewed the report and is certain the Eagles are safe to fly.

ACC’s concerns are focused on the metal support beams inside the jet’s forward fuselage, called longerons, which support the cockpit assembly and reinforce the cockpit.

Including the Missouri Air National Guard jet that crashed, nine F-15s were found with cracks in the forward longerons. The cracked jets were produced in several different years.

The 442 grounded jets are all the A- through D-model versions of the F-15.

The newer and bigger F-15E Strike Eagles were grounded at first, but allowed to return to flight in November after inspections found none of the troublesome cracks in the bomber version of the F-15.

DISCUSS: The F-15s