B-2 Spirit Crash in Guam

[Teller1900]

I searched; sorry if this has been posted before - video of the crash.

The crash was caused by distorted data in the aircraft's flight control computers, according to a report released Thursday. Air Force investigators blame the distortion on moisture in the system, which caused the computers to calculate the wrong airspeed.
Click here for video of the B-2 crash.

The Air Force says the first crash of a B-2 stealth bomber was caused by moisture in the sensors that forced bad readings.
The moisture in 3 of the 24 sensors threw off the preflight data calibrations, which caused the flight control computer to force the aircraft to pitch-up 30 degrees on takeoff. That resulted in a stall and subsequent crash on Feb. 23.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026740/posts

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Computers are great if they have manual override available.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Yikes.

 

[KennyFlys]

Computers are great if they have manual override available.

My understanding is the YB-49 failed because man could not react to changes as quickly as required. Nor could man make the constant small and rapid changes required. The computers in the B-2 can.

So, an override probably would not have worked for long.

 

[ScottM]

There is something werid here. A little water gets in the computer and the pane crashes!!! There has to be more to it than that.

 

[kgruber]

There is something werid here. A little water gets in the computer and the pane crashes!!! There has to be more to it than that.

I believe it's completely possible. We have a similar system in the Falcon 50. The controls are hydraulically boosted, The amount of boost is dependant on airspeed.

At slow speed the controls have to move further in order work. If there is water in the pitot system the air data computer will get the wrong information in and the boost will be incorrect for the current flight regime. In the Falcon 50 the pilot must turn off the autopilot and slow down. The wrong "artificial feel" is dangerous and is routinely practiced in the simulator.

On the B2, a problem like this would be much greater due to the much higher speed differential between high and low.

 

[drizzt76]

You would think that in a plane like that you would have a backup for the backup system. It did show a master caution about the speed sensor or something but went away out after 6 sec. The sensors should cross reference each other and be able to figure out which sensors are providing incorrect data and eliminate the input. Well I guess is a billon dollor lesson learned.....Good thing the pilots were not hurt...thats is what is really important.