Boom On KC-46 Tanker Just Broke Off During F-22 Refueling Mission (Updated)
We were first alerted to publicly available air traffic control radio chatter about the incident by our friend Jared Soergel. TWZ has reached out to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, where the KC-46 involved is based, as well as Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, where the F-22s had launched from, for more information. We have also contacted Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, which could be a possible divert location.
You can listen below as the crew of the KC-46, callsign FELL 81 and serial number 17-46033, alerts the U.S. Navy's Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility at Virginia Capes (FACSFAC VACAPES) about losing the boom. FACSFAC VACAPES is better known by its callsign, Giant Killer, and helps monitor for threats and otherwise manage the airspace off the east coast of the United States.
The F-22s that had been refueling with FELL 81 on the AR-636 refueling track east of Norfolk are understood to have now returned to base. What damage any of the Raptors may have sustained during the incident is unknown at this time.
At the time of writing, FELL 81 remains airborne in a holding pattern just to the south of Greenville, North Carolina, according to flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange. The track shows the tanker initially circled over the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay, where the crew may have dumped fuel and otherwise made initial assessments about the damage, before heading south.
In general, KC-46s are no stranger to issues with their booms. Another one of the tankers lost its boom while refueling an F-15E Strike Eagle off the coast of California last year. The boom and the control system for it have been a source of serious and persistent technical issues for the Pegasus fleet for years now. A fix for the KC-46's particularly troublesome remote vision system (RVS), which boom operators in the tanker's main cabin use to perform their work, is now unlikely to be finished before summer 2027, roughly three years behind schedule, according to Defense News.
More details about what happened to FELL 81 and the other aircraft in the incident may begin to emerge once the tanker lands.
We will update this story if and when more information becomes available.Air Force 2nd Lt. Samantha Bostick, Deputy Chief of Public Affairs for the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base, has now provided TWZ with the following statement:
'A KC-46A Pegasus from McConnell Air Force Base declared an In-flight Emergency July 8, while operating over the eastern United States, refueling F-22s.'
'The crew had to make the decision to land at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and has landed safely there. The aircraft will remain there for the time being.'
A safety investigation of the incident is underway.
Howard Altman contributed to this story.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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