Pentagon eases flight restrictions on Air Force's F-22 Raptor jets

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-f22-raptor-restrictions-panetta-20120724,0,5370465.story

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has approved a plan to begin lifting flight restrictions that he placed on the Air Force's problem-plagued fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Since 2008, F-22 pilots have reported more than a dozen incidents in which they experienced hypoxia-like symptoms in the air. Hypoxia is a condition that can bring on nausea, headaches, fatigue or blackouts.

In May, Panetta ordered that any flights in a F-22 “will remain within the proximity of potential landing locations to enable quick recovery and landing should the pilot encounter unanticipated physiological conditions during flight."

But after more than a year studying the issue, the Air Force has made two changes to the plane to solve the hypoxia problem. These changes have prompted Panetta to gradually begin to lift the restrictions.

The Air Force believes that the root cause of the events are pressurized vests that F-22 pilots wear to combat high gravitational forces on the body. When the vests expanded, they restricted pilots' breathing, Pentagon spokesman George Little said at a Tuesday media briefing (http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=117248).