Lost Flashlight Causes $4 Million in Damages to US Stealth Fighter F-35A at Luke Air Base in Arizona

Arizona: A flashlight left inside an F-35 fighter jet's engine during routine maintenance resulted in significant damage, amounting to a whopping $4 million beyond 'local repair' for $14 million engine at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. mishap occurred on March 15, 2023, when a maintenance team of three failed to conduct a proper inventory of ir tools after completing routine work.

According to  United States Air Force aircraft accident investigation board report released on Thursday, maintenance team overlooked important step of checking every tool and failed to here to an established Air Force directive. This directive underlines importance of inspecting an engine before starting it and prohibits wearing loose items while working on an engine.

F-35's Pratt & Whitney Ingests Flashlight Due to Fuel Line Installation Gone Wrong

incident took place while team was installing a metering plug into an engine fuel line, a standard procedure required across Air Force's F-35 fleet to dress a fuel system issue identified in December 2022. report concluded that flashlight was ingested during engine test, although plane's sensors did not detect any foreign object ingestion. Abnormal noises were reported by mishap team as engine was shutting down, indicating that something was amiss.

Costly Consequences: $3,933,106 in Damages

damage caused by flashlight amounted to $3,933,106, as detailed in report. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in connection with incident. 56th Aircraft Maintenance Squron within 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base carried out maintenance work.

Luke Air Force Base, serving as a primary training base for Air Force pilots and crews, with 56th wing responsible for training and qualifying personnel on F-35, has gruated over 61,000 pilots since its establishment in 1941. Despite significant damage to F-35's engine, incident did not le to any disclosed ministrative actions against involved maintainers.

ding to intrigue, this mishap occurred just a month before Luke Air Force Base celebrated gruation of its 2,000th F-35 pilot in April. Despite significant damage to F-35's engine,as per reports, incident did not le to any disclosed ministrative actions against involved maintainers.