A routine aerial refueling mission final yr changed into an almost $10 million mishap after a tanker misplaced its total refueling growth whereas trying to refuel an F-22 Raptor.
On July 8, 2025, a KC-46A Pegasus tanker and an F-22A Raptor have been conducting refueling operations roughly 100 miles off the coast of Virginia when the tanker growth turned caught within the fighter’s refueling receptacle, in keeping with a brand new Air Drive accident investigation launched final week.
A refueling growth is basically a flying fuel pump. It is a inflexible, maneuverable tube that extends from a tanker and plugs right into a receptacle on one other plane to switch gasoline in flight.
In contrast to day-to-day gasoline transfers on the bottom from a fuel station pump to a car, these complex transfers happen within the air at lots of of miles per hour and require the tanker pilots, growth operator, and the pilot of the receiving plane to maintain each the growth and every plane in place and alignment.
That did not fairly occur right here. The boom nozzle obtained caught and would not come unfastened, triggering an emergency breakaway.
About 5 seconds after the F-22 disconnected, the growth got here free and whipped up into the tanker’s tail, damaging the plane’s tail cone and auxiliary energy unit exhaust duct. The crew described the impression as a “loud noise, violent motion” that made the KC-46 “bow wave a number of occasions” earlier than the growth started swinging and in the end broke away, plummeting into the ocean beneath.
Nobody was harm, however the mishap precipitated $9,978,567 in harm to the refueling tanker.
Investigators discovered that the growth operator’s management inputs precipitated the growth nozzle to bind contained in the F-22’s refueling receptacle. Additionally they discovered that the F-22 pilot didn’t consider the KC-46’s “stiff growth traits,” which precipitated an “extreme closure charge” because the fighter jet moved in too rapidly.
The investigation mentioned that the fighter jet struggled to take care of its place behind the tanker, forcing a number of corrections from the growth operator. After the plane lastly established contact, the fighter inched too far ahead because the operator continued adjusting the growth’s management system.
These changes left the growth out of trim, which means aerodynamic forces had constructed up within the growth, much like stress in a bent spring. That pressure precipitated the nozzle to turn into caught contained in the F-22’s refueling receptacle, and the growth operator was unable to unhitch it from the jet, setting the mishap in movement.
The fighter jet pilot and tanker growth operator bore the brunt of the blame within the Air Drive investigation, although the KC-46’s stiff growth has been tied to earlier refueling issues. No less than three mishaps between 2022 and 2024 have been discovered to have been brought on by stiff booms, in keeping with reporting from Air & Area Forces Journal.
On this incident, the F-22 obtained away safely. The KC-46 landed safely. The growth didn’t.
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