A U.S. Air Force investigation has found that a KC-46A refueling boom mishap was caused by incorrect manual control inputs by the boom operator and a F-22A Raptor pilot's failure to account for the boom's stiff characteristics.
The incident occurred on July 8, 2025, during a training mission, resulting in nearly $10 million in damages to the KC-46A aircraft.
The investigation found that the boom operator's mistake led to an excessively out-of-trim air refueling boom, causing a radical force to be applied to the refueling boom's nozzle, which bound inside the receiver's air refueling receptacle and led to a critical failure of the boom structure.
