AeroBD | The AERO news Company…Inverness, SCOTLAND, 10 March, 2016 : Noting that their pilots are reporting more incidents of breathing problems in F-18-based aircraft, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are combining their resources to determine the cause. Tthe F/A-18 Hypoxia Events Per 100,000 Flight Hour chart below,

“It’s a top priority for the Navy and the Marine Corps,” says Rear Adm. Michael Moran, Navy program executive officer for tactical aircraft. “We have a robust team looking at it from every aspect.”

Moran spoke before members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Feb. 4 hearing on naval air operations. What is alarming Navy and Marine aviation officials is the growing rate of reported hypoxia symptoms among pilots. Navy and Marine fliers reported the following rates of hypoxia events per 100,000 flights hours in fiscal 2006: 3.66 for F/A-18A-Ds, 2.18 for F/A-18E-Fs and none for EA-18Gs. Between Nov. 1, 2013, and Oct. 31, 2014, those rates had risen to 29.54 for F/A-18A-Ds, 26.39 for F/A-18E-Fs and 15.05 for the EA-18Gs, service aviation brass testified.

Navy and Marine officials say the EA-18G Growler numbers may include anomalies, but they are still including the incidents in their review. Officials also say some of the increases may be due to a more focused effort on reporting such incidents once the Navy and Marines realized more pilots were experiencing symptoms.

“Pilots feel dizzy,” Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, director of Navy Air Warfare, explained to committee members. “Confused. A little strange in the airplane.” Pilots have emergency air they can use, he notes. A Navy fighter pilot since 1982, Manazir says he personally has not had any hypoxia-related symptoms. “I’ve never experienced it outside of training,” he says.

Navy and Marine officials are increasing hypoxia training for their pilots while they search for root causes and related fixes. Investigators from special teams have been able to find some potential culprits thus far in some of the cases they have studied, the aviation officials told the committee: 93 have involved some form of contamination, 90 involved environmental control system component failures, 67 involved human factors, 41 involved onboard oxygen generation system component failure, 11 involved a breathing gas delivery component failure, and 45 were inconclusive or involved another system failure. Some of the events resulted fell under more than one category.