Report: F-35's First Crash Was Caused by Manufacturing Defect

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(Bloomberg) -- The crash of a U.S. Marine Corps F-35 that temporarily grounded
the entire fleet of next-generation jets in 2018 was caused by a manufacturing
defect in a fuel tube made by a United Technologies subcontractor, according to
congressional investigators.

The defect “caused an engine fuel tube to rupture during flight, resulting in a
loss of power to the engine,” the Government Accounting Office said this week in
a report on major weapons systems that referred to the September crash in South
Carolina. The Pentagon told the watchdog that it identified 117 aircraft --
about 40 percent of the worldwide F-35 fleet at the time -- with the same type
of fuel tubes that had to be replaced.

The disclosure was the first official information about the crash since the
Pentagon program office in late October issued a status statement while the
Marine Corps was still conducting its investigation. United Technologies Corp.’s
Pratt & Whitney unit “is fully responsible” for “the propulsion system and has
the lead in working” the failure analyses, according to the statement at the
time.

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon F-35 program office deferred comment to Pratt &
Whitney, whose spokesman, John Thomas, said the company had no comment.

Marine Corps spokesman Captain Chris Harrison said in a statement that the crash
probe is continuing, and that the results will be released once complete. The
Corps has replaced all of the relevant fuel supply tubes and “we continue to
strive each and every day to ensure the safety and readiness of our aircraft,”
he added.

The Sept. 28 crash of the F-35B near Beaufort, South Carolina, was the first in
the two-decade old program’s often-rocky history of delays, cost increases and
technical glitches. Although the pilot safely ejected, the incident prompted
concerns about the aircraft, which is being built by and sold to an
international consortium of U.S. allies, including the U.K, Italy, Australia and
Turkey.

The Pentagon program office last year said “more than 1,500 suppliers are on the
F-35 program and this is an isolated incident which is quickly being addressed
and fixed. Safety is our primary goal.”

The defective part identified in the report provides operating pressure to the
engine and fuel to the engine combustor.

Engine Deliveries

Aside from the defect, Pratt & Whitney’s recent track record delivering engines
on time has been spotty. Deliveries surged to 81 in 2018 from 48 in 2012,
according to the GAO -- yet 86% of those were delivered late, up from 48% in
late 2017. The delays were due in part to an increase in the “average number of
quality issues per engine” -- 941 in 2018 against 777 a year earlier, the GAO
said.

Pratt & Whitney told the GAO that “its late engine deliveries increased in 2018
partially due to a subcontractor that did not have all of the needed tooling in
place to produce more F-35B engines,” according to the report.

The F-35 is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, at a projected cost
of more than $428 billion. More recently, a Japanese F-35A crashed off Japan’s
coast in April, with only portions of the jet’s wreckage found since then
despite a monthlong search. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The
jet’s pilot hasn’t been found.




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