With a picture in the article below provided by an anonymous Hornet driver.
F-22 Raptor Came To A Rest On Its Belly During Major Mishap Friday At NAS Fallon
Few solid details are available regarding this incident but USAF officials have confirmed that it did indeed occur and the damage is extensive.
By Tyler Rogoway April 14, 2018
An F-22A Raptor belonging to Elmendorf Air Force Base's 3rd Wing was involved in a major mishap this weekend. Details remain sketchy and are likely to change, but a source told The War Zone that the jet may have retracted its gear too early during takeoff, with the aircraft slamming back down on the runway at relatively high speed and skidding its way to a stop. Thankfully the pilot was able to egress from the aircraft without major injuries.
We contact[ed] the public affairs office at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson who jumped right on the story and quickly confirmed that the aircraft had been involved in a mishap at Fallon and although the damage is extensive, it is hoped that it can be repaired at this time. An investigation into the incident is currently underway.
The F-22 was at NAS Fallon to support the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, better known as Topgun, providing a dissimilar adversary for students to fight against as part of a class graduation exercise. This is a widely known event in which Topgun students take part in a 1v1 fight against an unknown 'surprise' enemy aircraft. Aircraft of all types, from warbirds to foreign fighters, have been brought in to take part in the exercise over the decades.
For a relatively small cadre of fighter aircraft—roughly just 125 out of 183 jets are combat coded at any given time—the F-22 community has experienced a number of gear-up and runway mishaps over the last half-decade or so.
On May 31st, 2012 a student pilot on his second solo flight in the F-22 didn't apply enough power before retracting the jet's landing gear during departure. The F-22 sunk down and careened its way across the runway on its belly before coming to a stop. The cost to repair that jet was a whopping $35M and took six years to accomplish the task.
F-22 Raptor Came To A Rest On Its Belly During Major Mishap Friday At NAS Fallon - The Drive
The Topgun adversary pilot was last seen filling out a Cathay Cargo application to fly rubber dogs**t out of HKG.
