Investigation: Mishandled flashlight damaged $14M F-35 engine at Luke Air Force Base
A maintenance crew member’s failure to put away a handheld flashlight caused damage to a $14 million F-35 engine at Luke Air Force Base last March, an investigation concluded.
While the jet was undergoing maintenance work on March 15, a member of the three-person team left behind a flashlight. The engine ingested the object during a portion of the maintenance run, damaging its blades, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Board Report.
Based on the evidence found, “the mishap was caused by (the maintenance member) not executing a complete inlet inspection and failing to conduct a tool kit inventory prior to engine run operations,” Air Force Col. Sean S. Brammer-Hogan, president of the Accident Investigation Board, said in the 19-page report.
‘Beyond local repair’
The crew’s task that evening was to place a metering plug into a fuel line, and then check for any leaks as the engine ran.
While shutting down the jet’s engine following the plug’s installation and leak check, the maintenance team heard “abnormal noises.” The maintenance individual who left the flashlight — identified in the report as mishap member 1, or MM1 — found that the engine blades were damaged during an inspection.
Disclosing the damage to a maintenance expeditor, the maintenance member stated, “I believe I just ingested a flashlight,” the report noted.
“A concurrent tool inventory inspection performed by MM2 noted a missing flashlight,” the report stated.
The engine was damaged “beyond local repair” and there were no reported injuries during the incident, the investigation found. The estimated damage was just over $3.93 million.
Sean Clements, chief of media relations at Luke Air Force Base, said maintenance staff at the base can fix minor problems with aircraft. However, major issues, like the damage caused by the flashlight, require in-depth repairs, which are handled at another Air Force base.
Capt. Scarlett Trujillo, a public affairs officer for the Air Force, said the F-35 was repaired at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
Weather not a factor
Ahead of the incident, a weather warning amid a thunderstorm within 5 miles of the base prompted the crew to pause the work and take shelter for about 50 minutes, according to the report.
The weather delay, however, was not found to play a role in the incident, with witnesses reporting there was enough time for the team to complete its task after the warning, the investigation said.
The crew also “did not feel rushed or pressured” to finish the job before their shift ended, the report later noted.
Human error
What was relevant to the incident, the report added, was the maintenance procedure not being followed correctly.
“Failure to complete checklist tasks resulted in a flashlight being left inside the inlet,” Brammer-Hogan said in his remarks in the report. “The flashlight was ingested into the engine during the engine run and caused the damage to the engine.”
Trujillo could not confirm whether any administrative action was taken against the maintenance member because such information is “not releasable.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Luke AFB flashlight mishap caused $4 million in damage to F-35 engine
