How A Lack Of Discipline Crashed A $456 Million Bomber | B1B Ellsworth Crash

Описание: America has a lot of nuclear warheads and getting that warhead to where it needed to be in a time of crisis is a task in and of itself. Thats why you have the minuteman intercontinental missile, large subs with enough nuclear missiles to send any country on the earth back to the stone age multiple times over and the topic of today's video, the B-1B lancer or more affectionately known as the bone. The B1 could go up ot mach two or get down low to the ground and get close to the enemy and set off its payloads to unleash mayhem on anyone that has the misfortune of being in its crosshairs.
To do that in a time of war you need to be on your toes and thats why the USAF makes sure that all of its crews and well trained. On the 4th of october 2024 there was one such training mission underway, two bbs would make up felon flight and they would take off from ellsworth AFB in south dakota enter the power river test range and then practice stand off weapon employment. Now i had to learn what a standoff weapon is so now you have to as well. Basically a standoff weapon is a weapon usually a missile that can be fired from a distance so that the firing platform can stay out of the crosshairs of enemy fire.

With all the briefing and all that out of the way the two B!Bs lit their burners and took off, they felon flight successfully employed their simulated standoff weapons and most of the training objects had been met but they now had a new problem brewing, the weather. Moreover the first B1b was starting to run low on fuel. They needed to start heading back now. They considered diverting to tinker AFB in oklahoma, but before they made any decisions the flight lead decided to contact ground controllers for a weather update. As they got into radio range the tower did not have good news for the crew the visibility was down to 5/8th of a statute mile or one kilometer or 3300 feet. The two planes discussed they both agreed that they could make a visual straight in approach to runway 13. With just half a statute mile of visibility. Once they were in contact with approach control they requested the 13 approach as they had higher ceilings on that approach. WIth decisions made the two planes split up as they both lined up for their respective landing attempts. RAPCON or radar approach control watched on as both jets locked on to the ILS and started cutting through the fog down to the runway. The controller cleared both the jets in for a opposite direction approach, this meant that they would be landing in the opposite direction of the other planes. They did this instead of switching the active runway at the airport. The two huge bombers were now space out by 7.71 nautical miles and the first b1b felon one touched down without any issue, as it taxied in the fog, now it was upto the second b1b felon two to do the same. The Aircraft commander of felon two now had set the speed of 164 knots and was on the glideslope. Then in the final moment of flight the wind suddenly shifted from a heading of 340 to 190, felon two had flown right into some severe wind shear. The plane sped up by 12 knots and in the cockpit the pilot pulled back power three times to keep the speed in check. The plane was still covered in fog and the pilots searched for the runway in the fog hoping that the lights of the runway would suddenly appear out of thin air leading them to the runway. The pilots one pilot was staring at the instruments making sure that everything was right where it should be and the other was peering into the fog. The nose of the plane went up ever so slightly as the plane cut through the fog. Then the instructor pilot out of no where screamed climb climb climb they had somehow strayed away from the glidepath and were now mere seconds from slamming into the ground. The captain took a few seconds to light the engines, the 4 afterburners kicked in but the pilot pulled back on the stick too hard and the plane was now unrecoverable. The jet slammed into the ground just shy of the runway the captain knowing that things were going wrong immediately pulled the ejection handle. and the burning wreck of the B1B went onto the runway and rolled along the runway for 5000 feet before coming to a stop east of the runway. In the tower they knew that something had gone seriously wrong and they were scrambling the emergency vehicles as fast as possible. In the commotion, the assistant director of operations got a text from the pilot of the plane saying all was okay with a location pin to where they were.