Another foam party! This time at Charleston AFB. Maybe USAF should check its fire suppression systems

May 15, 2012 Military Aviation

David Cenciotti

When I published the picture about the F-15, F-16 and A-10 submerged by foam at Eglin AFB, Florida, I thought that this kind of incident was quite rare.

I was wrong.

First of all, a visitor recounted that something like that happened with a C-135 VIP transport at Hickam AFB many years ago. They put it into the fuel cell hangar, and left the cockpit windows open. It rained that night, the roof leaked, and the fire suppression system went off. They found the cockpit filled with halon.

Then, a pilot sent me the following picture taken in 2011 at Charleston AFB, South Carolina, when a fire suppression system went off inside a huge C-17 hangar.

Obviously, the size of both the hangar and the C-17 is such, that the U.S. airlifter was far from being submerged by foam.

Courtesy image

Foam party! Hangar fire suppression system submerges F-15, F-16 and A-10 in foam at Eglin Air Force Base (theaviationist.com)
Air Force Accidentally Fills Entire Hangar with Foam [Image Cache] (gizmodo.com)

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.