ALL HF-01 FLIGHTS HALTED FOR SAFETY REASONS

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH FUEL TANKS HAVE FORCED THE UPCOMING HF-01 FLIGHTS TO BE CANCELLED UNTIL IT IS FIXED.

Yesterday at 5:28 AM, the neighbors of the 62th Interceptor wing, Air Base 05N, near the borders with Belaria, got out of bed suddenly after an inmense fireball suddenly illuminated the sky, a couple seconds after, the sound of an explosion went to their ears.

It is known that ABSOLUTE, alongside with the Usrelian Air Force (URAF), have been testing a new variant of the HF-01 that will finally replace the "chunkies" (first gen HF-01's) which will be retired in the next months. During testing, ABSOLUTE wanted to verify how much better was the performance with the new canopy and tail and so ordered the pilot to push the aircraft above its limits, reaching MACH. 4.05 and sustaining it for 1.45 minutes, causing intense temperatures to be reached in the canopy to test its resistance to heat. What would happen would be that the entire plane, especially the wings and intake compressors, would start heating over the recommended temperatures for oil and fuel to remain liquid. It was known that the engines would be damaged beyond repair after the test, it was the last experimental flight that was going to be carried out in that specific aircraft unit, however, engineers didnt know at the time that the reason for this would be other than the completion of the data and research on the airframe.
The plane was returning home when the plane suffered a compressor stall mid-flight. Experts say that this is normal due to intake temperature and the low compression of the engines and pilots tell us that it is a common phenomena on the HF-01 after long missions. The pilot was able to safely fly the plane on one engine without major issues, the problems appeared at the moment the aircraft landed. Due to having only one working engine, touchdown was hard, reports point it as the main reason for the left wing fuel tank to break and the right and front landing gear dollies collapsed, causing the craft to explode while still travelling at 130 m/s. The aircraft deviated towards the airbase fuel storage tanks and smashed them at 80 m/s causing the fuel inside to explode upon contact with the hot airframe, the already burning left wing and the incandescent metal from the fuselage scratching the ground. The 1.500.000-liter and 900.000-liter tanks, which had been refilled the past friday, were totally destroyed.

The inmense quantity of fuel spilled caused structural damage to about 1/3 of the airbase and left 12 aircraft destroyed or heavily damaged. Surprisingly, various HF-01S were damaged very little in comparison to some F-02 Vespyr and Oculus recon aircraft stored nearby, proving the quality of the carbo-ceramic tungsten alloys used as thermal coating in the HF-01S. A ceremony in honour of the defunct pilot will take place tomorrow, he has been awarded the Golden Zvezda medal for his actions as HF-01 pilot for the URAF.

In consequence to the accident, ABSOLUTE has ordered all air forces operating such aircraft (Belaria and Usrelia) to ground all the units until thermal plates are installed around the fuel tanks inside the wings to prevent further incidents.