Just about any military pilot would kill to get into an F-22 fighter. But one Air Force flier couldn't get out of one.A jammed canopy kept the pilot at Langley Air Force Base, Va., trapped inside for five hours April 10 before firefighters used a rotary saw to cut him out. Air Force officials said the optically perfect canopy on the $130 million jet will cost about $82,000 to replace.
The Air Force blamed the snafu on too-short screws that had begun to back out of the canopy frame. The offending hardware was inspected in other planes and replaced with longer screws. "This was a rare case that's likely to never happen again," said Dexter Henson, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which builds the jets in Marietta. "The technical issue has been resolved."
So far, the stealthy fighters have flown more than 14,000 hours — and Lockheed and Air Force officials say they're meeting or exceeding expectations. The Langley planes are part of the Air Force's first front-line F-22 squadron.