Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates
John Newman
The Bunker Group
As long as the crew are all ok, that's the main thing.
From the photo above, the airframe appears to be intact, but certainly blackened by the fire.
As to a possible replacement, it's way too early to speculate, repairable? Maybe not, or if possible, probably take a long time too.
If the Government wants to ensure a full compliment of 12 airframes, probably easier to seek a similar aged Growler airframe from the USN as an attrition replacement or seek a new build from Boeing.
As to the incident itself, I would assume that the RAAF's remaining Growlers may not continue to participate in the Red Flag exercise until a cause is known, better to ground them and be safe than sorry.
Last edited:
t68
Well-Known Member
Crickey glad to see that no one was hurt, agree on grounding but I imagine that will also effect the F fleet here in AU as well until a finding takes place
John Newman
The Bunker Group
Depending on what investigators initially find as the cause (or don't find), it may not just be the RAAF's Supers and Growlers that face a potential temporary grounding, it could also be the USN's Super and Growler fleet too.
I'm sure the USN will be paying very close attention to this incident as well as the RAAF.
Unfortunately any significant heating of an aluminium airframe usually means that it is a right off, as it does not take very high temperatures to affect the heat treatment in high strength aluminium alloys and destroy the overall strength of the aircraft. There may be no direct fire damage or indications of fire damage for this to happen.
SpazSinbad
Active Member
Fire Crews are renowned mostly for getting on scene quickly to douse those flames. BZ fire crews. They appear out of nowhere. Honest. After landing on empty A4G drop tanks, short field arresting at NAS Nowra at night (wheels broken - a long story), a great whoosh of very bright flame could be seen in my mirrors and generally around the aircraft in the dark gloom. Stepping out of the cockpit (no ladder required) I was hotfooting (waddling quickly really with all the personal safety equipment carried) it across and down the runway to get away from what I thought was a beginning conflagration (I did not bother to look back & 'turn into a pillar of salt'). 
A fireman caught up to me & said something funny & I stopped - exhausted. The residual fuel fumes in the drop tanks had ignited during the runway scrape arrest. I also like drop tanks. One year on the A4G was back flying (slightly bent-rampstrike).
A fireman caught up to me & said something funny & I stopped - exhausted. The residual fuel fumes in the drop tanks had ignited during the runway scrape arrest. I also like drop tanks. One year on the A4G was back flying (slightly bent-rampstrike).
Last edited:
Joe Black
Active Member
Apparent some engine issues during take-off. Good thing it wasn't a total write-off. It will be an expensive repair bill though. Glad that the pilots were ok.
That is why I remain optimistic that it wasn't a complete write off. Had the fuel tank exploded there would be nothing left.
SpazSinbad
Active Member
I'm no repair expert however - to me - this looks like expensive repair especially for toasted need to be replace avionics. Good airframe back home for learning how to repair damaged airframes I guess: https://i.imgur.com/lhKnsdN.png We'll find out in due course with some detail I hope about what went wrong etc.
John Newman
The Bunker Group
Spaz,I'm no repair expert however - to me - this looks like expensive repair especially for toasted need to be replace avionics. Good airframe back home for learning how to repair damaged airframes I guess: https://i.imgur.com/lhKnsdN.png We'll find out in due course with some detail I hope about what went wrong etc.
Agree, from the other side she didn't look so bad, from the right hand side, she looks like a 'crispy critter'. (This same photo has now appeared on the Australian Aviation website too):
New images shows extent of fire damage to RAAF Growler | Australian Aviation
Must have been some serious heat levels to 'melt' the rear end, and that's just externally too, I would imagine inside the airframe, its far worse.
Time to have a chat with our friends in the USN and see if they will part with an attrition Growler airframe of similar build time, or put an order in with Boeing for a new replacement (and hopefully they can salvage enough undamaged systems to go into the spares pool too).
t68
Well-Known Member
I don't see them opening the check book for a new build replacement, once we have 12x F35A my guess is they will start to pull thru some of the pre-wired jets thru 4/6
John Fedup
The Bunker Group
This would seem to be a better solution, especially since F-35s are starting to arrive.
It all depends on what went wrong, Fault could lay anywhere between the RAAF and Boeing. If RAAF I do see it being hard to get another Growler without the USN assisting however if Boeings fault then should be covered under warranty in which case they likely to just give us a new bird and part this one out. Wouldnt want to fix this one with out a serious going over, Might be cheaper actually salvaging what they can off this bird, Fitting them to one of the wired super hornets and ordering a new SH.
John Fedup
The Bunker Group
Assuming no warranty offset, wouldn't converting a prewired SH into a Growler and not replacing the SH make more sense. Why bother replacing it as it will probably cost almost as much as extra F-35 being ordered?