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191 F-15s grounded at least another month

A decision on the return to flight of 191 grounded F-15 Eagles will be made on a “plane-by-plane basis,” the head of Air Combat Command, Gen. John Corley said Thursday at the Pentagon

The jets remain grounded because each jet failed a detailed inspection that looked at sections of the jet’s longerons, the metal beams that reinforce the fuselage, said Maj. Gen. Tom Owen, commander of the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia and the officer who oversees F-15 maintenance issues for the entire Air Force.

Inspection teams were looking for longerons that were thinner than the aircraft’s specifications called for. Even if a longeron was 1/1000th of an inch thinner than expected, the plane was grounded.

Inspectors also checked for other imperfections that could lead to crackling such as a rough surface on the aluminum alloy beams. Actual cracks were found in nine jets.

Corley told a press conference that a decision to release any of the jets back to flight would wait until after more analysis is done of airframe problems and the potential for cracking, a process that he said would take at least four weeks

Owen said the service is looking at how to fix the jets by replacing longerons and reinforcing the beams. A rough estimate on replacing one longeron is $250,000, including parts and labor, Owen said.

On Wednesday, Corley OK’d the return to flight of 254 F-15s, roughly 60 percent of the Air Force’s F-15A through D models. Those jets passed the inspections.

The F-15s were first grounded Nov. 3, the day after a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C broke up in flight.

Video

F-15s back in the air