B-2 Emergency Landing + Fire | 10th December 22

[EAGLE]

B-2 made an emergency landing, leading to a fire. Initial reports (before any news articles) claimed the aircraft's left wing was in the ground, indicating to me a possible Main Landing Gear failure. The runway at Whiteman is closed via NOTAM until December 16th at 2359z.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/b-2-spi ... teman-afb/

[plmc135]

Reported on ASN as being 82-1068, Spirit of New York.

[Seahornet1]

Reported on ASN as being 82-1068, Spirit of New York.

'New York' was part of the Fairford detatchment in March 2020. I do hope that's not the last we see of her....

[Red-Eye-Knight]

B-2 made an emergency landing, leading to a fire. Initial reports (before any news articles) claimed the aircraft's left wing was in the ground, indicating to me a possible Main Landing Gear failure. The runway at Whiteman is closed via NOTAM until December 16th at 2359z.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/b-2-spi ... teman-afb/

NOTAM has been extended to 31st December and whole B2 fleet grounded.

https://theaviationist.com/2022/12/18/a ... fleet/amp/

[Vulture 01]

Reports circulating that the B2 fleet is now on a 'safety stand-down'.

Ooops should have read all of the previous post....
Apologies!

[moonstone_laura]

From 'Defense One':

Runway Still Blocked, B-2s Still Grounded—But President Can Direct Them to Fly if Needed

The only runway at the home of the United States’ B-2 fleet is still closed and the nuclear-capable heavy bombers still grounded after a Dec. 10 accident there, but President Joe Biden could direct the B-2s to fly “to fulfill mission requirements,” the U.S. Air Force said Tuesday evening.

An unarmed B-2 Spirit malfunctioned in flight, made an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and then caught fire on the runway.The fire was extinguished quickly and no one was injured, according to a Tuesday statement from the 509th Bomb Wing. A safety team is still working to determine what caused the malfunction, and the runway is still blocked.

“The Whiteman AFB runway will reopen once debris is cleared, and B-2 operations will resume at the conclusion of the safety stand-down,” the statement said.

However, B-2s could fly if necessary, the bomb wing said in its statement. And the U.S. has “a variety of capabilities at its disposal, particularly when it comes to our strategic bomber fleet,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters earlier that same day.

“We also have the B-52, which is both conventional- and nuclear-capable,” Ryder said. , adding that he’s “confident that we continue to maintain the bomber capability that we need to deter adversaries, and if necessary, engage in combat.”

The commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, Col. Daniel Diehl, echoed that in the unit’s written statement: “Team Whiteman remains the cornerstone of national security. We are ready and prepared to answer our nation’s call.”

The Air Force said earlier this week that there is “no speculated end date” for the safety stand down. It has offered no explanation for the delay in clearing the runway.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022 ... ed/381197/

[Ghastly Whisper]

Ohhh my god, dont they bang on with some jibberish!! Why not just say the B-2 is grounded for a while, the runway is damaged but we can fly if needed to!

[moonstone_laura]

Update from 'Air Force Times':

Whiteman AFB’s only runway reopens after B-2 bomber accident

The runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, reopened Wednesday after a disabled B-2 Spirit bomber blocked the installation’s lone strip for over a week.

Having a functioning runway again means the base can resume flying its A-10C Thunderbolt II attack planes, owned by the Air Force Reserve’s 442nd Fighter Wing, and T-38 Talon training jets, which prepare airmen to pilot the B-2 and A-10.

The Air Force’s fleet of 20 B-2s — the service’s only stealth bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons — is still grounded as airmen check the planes for safety defects. Whiteman is the military’s only B-2 base.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your ... -accident/

[Skywatcher]

I assume that nothing further has since been heard and assume it’s still under investigation and flight safety hold still in effect as don’t think I have seen any reports of B-2s airborne ethier local stateside or on GPM /BTFs ,anyone know any different? Seems worryingly long time since we have heard anything ….
Fingers crossed for some good news would have thought another statement by now that they are back in the green /resumed operations by now
Hopeful we may see them at some point soon

[EGDR]

Video on twitter of a B-2 being refuelled by the 100 ARW over Estonia on the 26th of Jan. Assuming this is legitimate they are indeed flying again.

If you mean this one: https://twitter.com/Military_News4/stat ... 7726992385

99.9% certain it's made up. The footage appears to be at least 2 years old - would imagine it was filmed during a previous Fairford deployment. DVIDS link: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/733518/b ... l-stringer

[Skywatcher]

Bit of a update via Air and space forces
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/b-2-f ... -red-flag/
Three weeks ago still no actual B-2 ops conducted
Hope this helps
All the best
Max

[moonstone_laura]

I'm assuming the B-2s are still grounded? I haven't seen any further updates for a while now.

[Supra]

Following on from the article linked 2 posts above. It would seem they're waiting for a new supplier as the $8 Walmart 'landing gear springs' are not performing well?
When you see "Made in China" on a part you just know how the PRC can easily bring the mighty USA to its knees!

[moonstone_laura]

From 'The Drive's' The War Zone:

B-2 Stealth Bomber Spotted In Hawaii During Fleet-Wide Grounding

According to the Air Force, the B-2A Spirit stealth bomber fleet remains grounded, with exceptions at the discretion of the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, over four months after one of these aircraft suffered a mishap last December. The bomber in question made an emergency landing that resulted in a runway excursion at its home base in Missouri.

Significant damage was done to the aircraft, which caught fire, and subsequently sat wing-down partially off the runway for days. This incident came just over a year after a similar mishap occurred. That B-2, one of just 20 in existence, is still getting repaired at its birthplace at Plant 42 in Palmdale. Now it appears one B-2 has been operating, or had been operating, out in the Pacific, for reasons still unclear.

The mystery B-2 first popped up in an image said to have been taken at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, which shares grounds and runways with the sprawling Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, and posted to social media. It was shared as part of a larger discussion about how B-2s are missing from U.S. Strategic Command's (STRATCOM) big Global Thunder annual nuclear readiness exercise this year, which kicked off on April 11. The poster notes that the image of the B-2 in Hawaii was taken on April 7, 2023.

We corroborated this photo with low-resolution satellite imagery from Planet Labs taken on April 8, showing the B-2 parked on the northern apron at Hickam.

The Spirit in question appears to have been transient in nature, although where it came from and where it was going to remains unclear. It's possible that it had been at a forward location, such as Guam or Diego Garcia, when the grounding order came following the landing incident and is just now making its way home under a special waiver. Alternatively, it could have been stranded for maintenance or due to the grounding up until now. On the other hand, maybe it was flying a particular mission that was deemed important enough to take the risk of operating the aircraft during a fleet-wide stand-down. We just don't know, but these giant flying wings aren't exactly easy to miss. Whatever the circumstances were, they clearly seem to have been unique.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/b ... -grounding

[moonstone_laura]

Breaking News from 'Defense One':

B-2s to Return to Flight after Five Months

The U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirits will soon return to flight, five months after the entire fleet of stealth bombers were grounded in the wake of one plane’s Dec. 10 emergency landing.

Air Force officials have lifted the safety pause, and flight operations are expected to resume on May 22, according to Rose Riley, an Air Force spokesperson. Air & Space Forces Magazine first reported the coming return to flight.

“During the safety pause, we erred on the side of prudence and caution to assess any possible safety of flight issues, deliberately and methodically, within the fleet. We successfully accomplished all necessary actions to safely return to full flight operations with the B-2 fleet,” Riley said.

She did not say what those actions were.

Indeed, Air Force officials have never said what went wrong with the bomber that was forced to land at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, home to the service’s 20 B-2s. No one was hurt in the December mishap, which involved a fire after landing.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023 ... hs/386590/

[moonstone_laura]

From AFGSC's official twitter account (May 22nd):

The #B2 #Spirit returned to full flying ops today after a deliberate safety pause, during which the maintainers & aircrew at
@Whiteman_AFB who enable/operate the bomber kept full mission readiness, ready to launch if tasked.

https://twitter.com/AFGlobalStrike/stat ... 2346802179