Searchers are preparing this afternoon to land a helicopter at the site where an Air Force F-22 Raptor jet is believed to have gone down overnight during a training flight, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson officials said. The wreckage is about 100 miles north of Anchorage, base officials said during a brief press conference this afternoon. They said they have not yet found the pilot.
"We don't, right now, have a handle on the condition of the pilot," said John Pennell, of the joint base public affairs office.
The airplane, which is assigned to Elemendorf's 3rd Wing, disappeared during a training flight with another F-22 out of Elmendorf-Richardson Tuesday night. Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander, said the pair had been flying for about an hour and 20 minutes, had separated as part of the training maneuvers, and were preparing to rejoin and head home when the one aircraft vanished about 7:40 p.m.
McMullen said he assumed the terrain where the plane is believed to have gone down is rugged. Asked if Tuesday night's high winds in the region might have affected the flight, he said it would have been normal for an F-22 to fly in such winds.
The plane carries one pilot. The Air Force has not released the pilot's name.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing airman, and we thank all Alaskans for their continued support and prayers during this trying time," said McMullen said in a written statement earlier today. "Finding the missing pilot is our top priority."
The F-22 is equipped with a state-of-the-art ejection system, according to a Pentagon-based spokesman for the Air Force.
Search efforts this morning focused southeast of Cantwell on the edge of Denali National Park and Preserve, according to the Alaska Air National Guard, which is coordinating the search effort. The search, through the Air Guard's Rescue Coordination Center, involves pararescuemen onboard HH-60 helicopters and an HC-130 four-engine plane.
They conducted a grid search, according to Alaska Air National Guard spokeswoman Kalei Rupp. The search area had been broken into grids that searchers look at systematically, Rupp said. Rupp did not know the size of the search area.
Refueling air tankers also assisted in the search, which began Tuesday night. Searchers returned to base for rest between 3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. today, the Air National Guard said. Search efforts resumed again at 8 a.m.
A statement by the base this morning originally reported the location of the search area as northeast of Cantwell. "Right now I'm told it's just the Cantwell area," said Airman First Class Christopher Gross, a spokesman for the base.
The twin-engine F-22 comes with a price tag of $143 million, according to the Pentagon.
F-22s first arrived at Elmendorf in August 2007 after entering service in the mid-2000s. The Associated Press reports the jet is more maneuverable and stealthy than earlier jets and can cruise at more than 1.5 times the speed of sound without using its afterburner. Its top speed is confidential.
Congress last year stopped production of the plane, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., by eliminating $1.75 billion that would have added seven F-22s to the Air Force's fleet, according to the AP.
An F-22 crashed in March 2009 near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the pilot.
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