smoke and flames coming from the aft galley. The aircraft commander aborted the takeoff at about 50 KIAS and the cockpit crew, electronic warfare officers, intelligence operators and in-flight maintenance technicians—27 individuals in all—evacuated the aircraft. Although there were no injuries, except for minor smoke inhalation, the ensuing fire damaged aircraft control and mission related systems. Total repair cost was estimated at $62.4 million US. The cause of the mishap was failure by L3 Communications depot maintenance personnel to tighten a retaining nut connecting a metal oxygen tube to a junction fitting above the galley. This resulted in an oxygen leak and caused an oxygen-rich environment allowing adjacent materials to ignite. The resulting fire melted the retaining nut and caused the tubing to become detached, feeding even more oxygen to the fire, which increased in size and caused severe damage to the airframe, galley and mission equipment aboard the aircraft. The oxygen line system work, which was listed as the cause of this 2015 mishap, was carried out in August 2013. On 29 September 2022, an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint plane was interacted with by two Russian SU-27s, one of which released a missile in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet Joint beyond visual range. Russia subsequently claimed this was due to a technical malfunction, and acknowledged the incident took place over the Black Sea in international waters. The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, declared “we are incredibly lucky that the episode did not become worse”. Specifications (RC-135) See also References Citations Bibliography Cobra Ball – Federation of American Scientists RC-135S Cobra Ball Air Force's optical intelligence collection platform – Federation of American Scientists External links Rivet Joint page on FAS.org The RB-47 & RC-135 in Vietnam By Bruce Bailey "A Tale of Two Airplanes" by Kingdon R. "King" Hawes, Lt Col, USAF (Ret.) RC-135U Combat Sent Presentation, Capt Logan Schrank, September 2017 C-135R, Boeing Cobra radars Signals intelligence C-135, Boeing Quadjets Low-wing aircraft