World’s most sophisticated bomber taken out by nature

The U.S. Air Force B-2 Stealth Bomber that crashed in February of this year was caused by moisture in sensors. This just goes to show that no matter how sophisticated man’s technological prowess becomes, nature will always have the upper hand.

In the investigative report, Major General Floyd L. Carpenter states that the crash probably could have been avoided if knowledge of a technique to evaporate the moisture had been disseminated throughout the B-2 program. He is saying that someone had learned a technique to prevent this mishap and that learned ability was not passed on to other pilots. Why?

The military is supposed to work as a team of one. Meaning everyone knows everything that everyone else knows. That’s my estimation of what a ‘team of one’ means.

$1.4 billion dollars is hell of a lot of money to crash into the ground because preventive information was not passed on to that pilot.

Again, the U.S. Air Force fails in its responsibilities.

U.S. Air Force fails in its responsibilities

As an insight into the systemic thinking of the military mind, the general said that the report was forwarded to commanding officers to determine whether any disciplinary measures are required. Disciplinary Measures. The report was not presented in such a positive light as to what can be learned for the safety of future pilots and equipment, but whether or not someone should be punished for this accident. This negative thinking reinforces the command-and-control thinking that runs rampant in the military as well as in politics. We need to move in a more positive direction away from the fear-of-punishment-as-incentive. I am certain that the two pilots of that aircraft on February 23, 2008 were not intending on destroying that bomber. And their training was very extensive and thorough. To be under the threat of punishment for negligence resulting in the destruction of this piece of equipment is ludicrous.

However, something needs to be done to disseminate information on how the crash could have been prevented. Now that would be positive, forward thinking.

In this day of lightning-fast-gossip of the antics of some debutante why can’t information as critically important as preventing the uncontrollable behavior of a $1.4 billion aircraft be quickly spread to everyone concerned?

Oh, as an after thought, Carpenter said procedures and policies are now in place to guard against similar crashes. It is unfortunate that we had to lose one of our nation’s most technologically advanced and expensive bombers before everyone became privy to how the accident could have been prevented.

For a video of the actual crash click here. The video two B2’s taking off. It is the second aircraft, about 1:50 minutes into the video that crashes.