Lt. Col. Christopher "Frenchy" Faurot was tooling along on Feb. 1 in his F-15D fighter at 18,000 feet and descending through 15,000 feet when he noticed that his Control Augmentation System had disengaged.

While he was in a steeply descending left-hand spiral, he also noticed the twin-tailed aircraft was not responding to his control inputs.

Faurot, a veteran pilot with the Hawai'i Air National Guard, radioed, "This thing's not responding" as the aircraft was flying at just over 250 mph with a wingman in an F-15C nearby.

The Lanikai man ejected from the aircraft at about 5,000 feet 58 miles south of O'ahu.

Those are some of the findings in a 32-page Air Force Accident Investigation Board report looking into the crash. Faurot, 41, suffered only minor abrasions and bruises.

So far, Faurot has indicated he's not interested in talking to the media about his experience, a Hawai'i National Guard official said.

The $43.8 million aircraft crashed and sank in waters more than 15,000 feet deep.

The Accident Investigation Board president did not find any clear and convincing evidence to determine a root cause for the crash, but found sufficient evidence to conclude that both rudders on the F-15 deflected to the left due to a failed connection, and Faurot was unable to regain control of the aircraft.

Flying in a fighter is a wild ride, but ejecting from one is even wilder, and Faurot may have been lucky to have avoided additional injury.

During the parachute descent, Faurot noticed his life raft had inflated and was dangling below him. Coast Guard helicopters soon were on the scene, and a scant 76 minutes after ejecting, Faurot had arrived at The Queen's Medical Center for a checkup.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, the rocket-propelled force that fires an ejection seat upward ranges between l2 and 20 G's. By comparison, a fighter pilot coming out of a dive can experience up to nine G's.

Back injuries have been the major source of reported injuries during emergency ejection, according to FAS.

Over two years, the U.S. Air Force reported that compression fracture was the leading type of injury suffered in 468 ejections. It was estimated that X-ray evidence of fracture could be found in 30 percent to 50 percent of pilots who ejected.

IN BRIEF

SCHOFIELD SOLDIERS OUT OF SADR CITY

Some Schofield Barracks soldiers with the Stryker brigade in Iraq recently got a reprieve from street fighting in Sadr City, a slum district with more than 2 million people on Baghdad's eastern edge.

Fighting continues against Shiite militants loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

About 150 soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry "Gimlets," were sent into Sadr City on March 26 for what they thought would be a 96-hour mission.

Col. Todd McCaffrey, the commander of the Stryker brigade, recently commended the soldiers for a job well done after they returned from a month of fighting.

USS HAWAII ARRIVAL DELAYED TO 2010

The anticipated arrival for the submarine USS Hawaii at Pearl Harbor has been pushed back to 2010, officials said. The Virginia-class sub had been expected to arrive in its namesake state in 2009.

No word on the reason for the change.

Three of the first four of the new Virginia-class subs — the Texas, Hawaii and North Carolina — are expected to be based at Pearl Harbor. The lead ship, the USS Virginia, will remain on the East Coast.

The Texas is expected to be the first Virginia-class sub home ported in Hawai'i when it arrives in October 2009.

Vice Adm. Barry McCullough, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources, said at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee meeting last month that the USS Hawaii was either in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific along with the USS Crommelin, two other ships and P-3 Orion aircraft, conducting counternarcotics operations.

The $2.4 billion USS Hawaii was commissioned on May 5, 2007, in Groton, Conn.

The 377-foot Hawaii is 17 feet longer than the Los Angeles-class subs that are a common sight at Pearl Harbor.

Between its commissioning and a subsequent shipyard post-shakedown availability, the USS Virginia also went on a mission, heading out for nearly three months off the coast of South America.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.