On August 6 (local time), the US Air Force's Air accident Investigation Commission (AIB) announced its conclusion on the serious incident with the B-2A Spirit of Hawaii stealth bomber at Whiteman Air Force Station in 2022. The cause was determined to be a failure to install hydraulic joints in the landing gear system.
As the plane was about to land, the computer system detected a hydraulic leak. The more the take-off and the more the left side operate normally, but the more the right side of the aircraft does not take off. pilots activated the deployment mode as an emergency and the bulb showed that all three tanks were deployed and fixed. The plane was allowed to land.
However, when receiving the land, the left wing collapsed, causing the left wing to rub against the runway and the plane slid off the runway, crashing into the grass. The friction forced through the shell under the wing, leading to fuel leakage and fire. Although the fire force quickly reacted, the rising temperatures inside caused the two fuel tanks to explode, destroying part of the left wing. The fire was completely controlled after nearly an hour.
The investigation determined that the more emergency the release operation was, the more hydraulic pressure was reduced, causing the left wing to lack fixed force when the plane landed. The impact exceeding the endurance level caused the cluster to collapse completely, causing serious damage.
The estimated cost of damage to the B-2 is more than 300 million USD, not to mention 27,500 USD in damage at the base. The Whiteman Ring Road was closed for a week, and all B-2 flights were banned for six months.
The B-2 Spirit is a strategic strategic transport aircraft model launched in 1988, featuring an invisible design and long-range attack capability. Each B-2 has an initial manufacturing cost of $515 million, equivalent to $1.06 billion at present, and the total cost including research and development could be as high as $2.1 billion per vehicle.
The US Air Force has built 21 B-2. One was destroyed on Guam in 2008, the other burned down in 2010 but has been repaired. With the Spirit of Hawaii officially having its edges removed due to high repair costs, this is the second B-2 to be removed from the payroll. Currently, the US only has 19 B-2 aircraft in operation, including one that is under repair due to a similar collapse in 2021.
