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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Pilot’s Widow Calls F-22 Raptor Defective

CHICAGO (CN) - The widow of an Air Force pilot claims Boeing, Lockheed Martin and others' made F-22 Raptors with a defective life support system, causing her husband's death in a training exercise.

Anna Haney sued Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell International and Pratt & Whitney in Cook County Court.

Her husband, Jeff Hander, died in November 2010 in the crash of an F-22 Raptor from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, near Anchorage.

The F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine fighter plane that uses Stealth technology. One hundred ninety-five were built from 1997 to 2011 at a total cost of $66.7 billion. Lockheed Martin was the prime contractor.

The widow claims: "On November 16, 2010 and at the time the F-22 Raptor aircraft left the control of Lockheed, it was unreasonably defective in that:

"a) it was designed manufactured, distributed and sold with an Onboard Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS), Environmental Control System (ECS), and other life support systems that did not safely or properly provide breathable oxygen to the pilot operating the aircraft;

"b) it was designed, manufactured, distributed and sold with the dangerous and defective propensity to supply the pilot with oxygen contaminated by harmful elements and compounds by the OBOGS, the ECS and the engine bleed air system ...

"h) it was designed, manufactured, distributed and sold with dangerous and defective life support system warnings as there were none;

"i) it was designed, manufactured, distributed and sold with a dangerous and defective oxygen backup system that did not automatically provide life support or breathable oxygen to the pilot in the event of a malfunction;

"j) it was designed, manufactured, distributed and sold with a dangerous and defective backup oxygen system which could be activated only manually, and whose manual activation mechanism was located underneath and behind the pilot, in an area impossible for a pilot to reach while he or she maneuvered the sophisticated aircraft at speeds exceeding the speed of sound and while he or she experienced forces many times the force gravity".

The complaint adds: "Before November 16, 2010, Lockheed represented to the Unites States Government and to the public that it had provided a safe and reliable F-22 Raptor aircraft, including its OBOGS, its ECS and its other life support systems that would allow our fighting men and women to survive combat, when Lockheed knew that it had not provided such and aircraft nor such systems to allow our pilots to survive even routine training missions, such as the one that killed plaintiffs' decedent Jeffrey Haney. As a direct result of the fraud of Lockheed that continues to this date, the United States Air Force has had to ground and/or severely limit flight of the F-22 Raptor aircraft, which has severely limited the aircraft's combat operations, range, and utility and the plaintiff's decedent Jeffrey Haney is dead.

"As a direct result of the fraud of Lockheed that continues to this date, the United States Air Force has awarded Lockheed a new multi-million dollar contract to investigate the failures, defects and deficiencies of the F-22 Raptor aircraft OBOGS, ECS and other life support systems, of which Lockheed has had continuing knowledge since the inception of the F-22 Raptor program and which directly caused the death of plaintiff s decedent Jeffrey Haney."

Haney made substantially similar allegations against the other defendants.

She seeks damages for wrongful death, product liability, negligence, breach of warranty and fraud.

She is represented by Michael Demetrio with Corboy & Demetrio.

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