The Air Force wants to know better understand debilitating symptoms that pilots and aircrews experience while in flight.
The symptoms in question include:
* Hypoxia – a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching tissues.
* Hypocapnia – a reduction of carbon dioxide in the blood, typically caused by hyperventilation.
* Hypercapnia – too much carbon dioxide in the blood.
The Air Force considers these so-called Unexplained Physiologic Events, or UPEs, as serious threats to safe operations.
The Air Force reportedly grounded one third of the A-10 fleet stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., in November due to UPE issues.
“As part of the integrated effort to address physiological events, the Air Force is providing more resources to understand UPEs, standardize response actions to such events and assess options for more robust aircrew training to recognize and respond to these events, said Brig. Gen. Bobbi Jo Doorenbos, leader of the investigation team. “Our ultimate goal is to prevent UPEs.”
