A July 6 incident in which a Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 pilot “experienced a hypoxic symptom” in flight during a routine training sortie has a known cause: an in-flight life-support system malfunction, an Air Force official told the Daily Report on July 17. While the investigation into the matter is still under way, the Air Force categorizes this malfunction as “a physiological ’cause-known’ event,” said the official. Accordingly, it is not one of the cases for which the service is still trying to determine why Raptor pilots have shown symptoms like disorientation and nausea in flight. The official said the Hawaii Air Guard pilot received a cockpit warning at the end of his training sortie from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam that his onboard oxygen-generation system was underperforming in delivering oxygen. The pilot experienced a hypoxic symptom and then activated the aircraft’s emergency oxygen system, said the official. “The symptom immediately subsided, and the pilot returned uneventfully to base,” stated the official. The pilot had no lingering physiological effects and has returned to flight status, said the official. (See also Lawmakers Seek Answers on F-22 Issues.)
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…