20 hours Ago By Luke Bodell
A United States Air Force (USAF) F-22 Raptor was forced to abort its takeoff from Kadena Air Base, Japan, due to a blown-out tire. Fortunately, the fighter jet and its pilot avoided a serious accident and the aircraft was able to continue taxiing on its own power. F-22 Raptor tire mishap at Kadena Air Base As first reported by The Aviationist (based on images published by X account @ma6400 ), the USAF F-22 Raptor was caught on camera as it suffered a blown tire during its takeoff roll.
A thick trail of smoke was seen emanating from the stealth fighter jet as it initiated its takeoff from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan before the jet safely slowed to a halt. By the looks of it, the F-22's left main landing gear burst during the incident, as the plane was later photographed taxiing with a noticeable tilt towards its left side. The F-22 is operated by the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron - based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson - but was recently stationed at Kadena Air Base as of early October.
The extent of the damage to the $350 million stealth fighter is not known at this stage and will probably be kept under wraps for security reasons. However, burst tires can cause considerable damage to an aircraft if tire fragments hit any part of it at high speeds. The latest F-22 mishap USAF returned the F-22 to Kadena Air Base earlier this year with the arrival of jets operated by the 199th and 19th Fighter Squadrons.
However, the plane has run into a few mishaps during its time at the Okinawa air base since then. The US and Japan have had a security cooperation treaty in place since 1960. Kadena Air Base is literally the biggest symbol of that treaty.
Just last month, another F-22 Raptor - assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley-Eustis - was forced into a "precautionary landing" at Kadena following an unspecified mishap, believed to be an engine failure. In two incidents before that, an F-22 suffered a nose gear collapse, and another airframe inadvertently rolled away from its parking spot. In late 2022, the 18th Wing—the host wing at Kadena Air Base—announced it would be phasing out its F-15 C/D fighters, with the final jet leaving this August.
The base will eventually welcome up to 36 newer F-15EX jets in the coming years. As a result, Kadena is hosting rotational deployments of fighter aircraft, including the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Burst tires Tire blowouts are no small matter, particularly concerning high-speed jet aircraft like the F-22.
While the airframe in this incident appears to have escaped serious damage, burst tires can precipitate more severe accidents, like fires or runway excursions. For example, the infamous Air France Concorde crash in July 2000 occurred after tire fragments damaged one of the jet's fuel tank during takeoff. In most cases, tire bursts are more of an inconvenience (sometimes rather expensive ones) - for example, a recent incident involving an Atlas Air Boeing 747-400F in Hong Kong led to the closure of a runway and hundreds of flights delayed.
All three incidents took place in June..
