F-22 Pilots Told That they Must Live With Their 'Raptor' Cough

An F-22 takes off on a training flight last month. Photo: Air Force

Air Force To Stealth Fighter Pilots: Get Used To Coughing Fits -- Danger Room

The Air Force has some bad news for the pilots of its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters: Your planes are going to make you feel crappy and there’s not much anyone can do about it. And the message to the maintainers of the radar-evading jet is even more depressing. Any illness they feel from working around the Raptor is apparently all in their heads, according to the Air Force.

Those admissions, buried in newly released Congressional records, represent the latest twist in the years-long saga of the F-22′s faulty oxygen system, which since at least 2008 has been choking pilots, leading to confusion, memory loss and blackouts — combined known as hypoxia — that may have contributed to at least one fatal crash. Ground crews have also reported growing sick while working around F-22s whose engines are running.

Read more ....

My Comment: Small comfort to the crews and their families upon hearing this 'news'.