Posted: 3/14/2008 3:15:11 PM EDT
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Searched to see if its a dupe and didn't see any topics, so here it goes: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123090350 F-16 crashes south of Alamo Lake, Ariz. 3/14/2008 - LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFPN) -- An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron here crashed about 12:00 p.m. today south of Alamo Lake, Ariz. At the time of the accident, the F-16 was on an air-to-air student training mission. One pilot was on board. The status of the pilot is unknown at this time. A board of officers will be convened to investigate the accident. As soon as additional details become available, they will be provided. |
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/0314f16-crash0314-ON.html Another link with very little infomation and they said fate of pilot is unknown. I pray that he/ she is safe, as this bird went down over 5 hours ago. I feared that no news maybe bad, but I hope not. |
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Off F-16.net www.f-16.net/news_article2780.html March 14, 2008 (by Jon Somerville) - An F-16C from 62nd FS based at Luke AFB was lost at 12.00h local time just south of Alamo Lake, about 50 miles northwest of Wickenburg. The pilot is reported as missing. F-16C #84-1273 lost today March 14, 2008 The F-16C is believed to be #84-1273. At the time of the loss the pilot who has not been named was on an air-to-air student training mission said Mary Jo May, a Luke spokeswoman. "The status of the pilot is unknown," May said, adding that further details about the crash were not immediately available. Rescue teams are using a helicopter and all-terrain vehicles to scour the rugged area about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix in an effort to find the wreckage and the pilot. A board of enquiry will be convened to investigate the accident. 62nd FS flies the block 25 variant of the F-16. The last crash from Luke occurred back on December 4, 2006, on a training mission about 85 miles south of the base. Two crew members of an F-16D, also assigned to the same squadron, ejected safely. This news article will be updated as new developments arise. |
| That sucks they lost another one, i remember a few going down when i was working there at Luke. Things happen though. Hope the pilot is alright as well. Someone's got some explaining to do. Piss test the last guys to work on the jet, heh. But hey on the upside i'm sure people will get a day off. |
We've crashed almost 300 of them. You don't get much bang for the buck when they are a smoking hole. Single engine jets have a mishap rate almost exactly twice that of twin engine jets. The lawn dart MKII (JSF) will carry on the fine legacy of crashing like hell vs. the F-22. F-16s are over twice that $20M figure you quoted btw, that's a very old number, like maybe the A models cost that in the 70s. |
Ok heres the numbers from Wikipedia for what it's worth. Costs I'll call Government accounting office Monday and ask for the expense reports.  |
That's some very creative accounting right there to get those figures |
More likely it was a G-lock and the trainee pilot blacked out and unable to regain consciousness in time to recover the aircraft or punch out. (Pulled too many G's) |
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Because if you have one engine and the wick goes up… your only option is to bang out. If you have two engines, if one goes out, you can fly home on the 'spare'. Two engines = half the chance of total engine failure. |
Less redundancy... One engine failure = fly home slowly.... THe exact opposite is generally found in twins vs singles WRT piston birds... But many light-twins are so underpowered when on only 1 motor that 'the still-running engine just gets you to the crash site faster'.... |
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But the majority of F-16 mishaps are G-LOC incidents, not due to any structural or mechanical failure. It's really a form of pilot error. "I thought I could pull 9 Gs and remain conscious. I was wrong and didn't regain consciousness before hitting the ground." The F-16 is still in production but they're all being made now for FOREIGN air forces. The USAF took delivery of its last one in 2005, IIRC. I think that's a mistake, personally. The JSF is still years out and we should have continued to acquire new F-16s to replace the oldest and least modern ones. CJ |
The F-16 is last decades model and totally washed out on the development front… F-18E/F's kick their ass's |
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There's no evidence of that. Compare today's Block 60 E/F or Israeli variants (I models) to any new F-15 or Super Hornet and you'll discover that YES, today's F-16 stacks up as well against the Eagle or Hornet as well as it ever has. Which is good enough that it's the pilot that is the deciding factor rather than the plane. You have a bias against the F-16 while I have a bias toward it. But the facts are undeniable, and the F-16 is the winner's aircraft in exercises at least as much as is the Eagle or the Hornet. Care to check out the results of the last several of William Tell meets and post them exactly as they appear? You will find that the F-16 is certainly well represented among the winners. Certainly well enough that it blows your assertions out of the water. CJ |
Other than teh Izzies who get them for free, any real airforces buying Lawn Darts? |
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You've got to be kidding me...the list of F-16 customers is long and distinguished...and sometimes, maybe NOT so distinguished, too. * US * Belgium * Denmark * Netherlands * Norway * Israel * Egypt * Korea * Pakistan * Venezuela * Turkey * Greece * Singapore * Thailand * Indonesia * Bahrain * Portugal * Taiwan * Jordan * UAE * Italy * Chile * Oman * Poland The F-16 Fighting Falcon has been both revolutionary and evolutionary. It was revolutionary in that this fighter introduced many innovations to air combat aircraft for the first time, and the dramatic capability increase over the previous generation of fighters has allowed the aircraft to remain a top performer today after several decades of operation. It is evolutionary because it has constantly evolved to incorporate the latest technologies, expanding its roles and redefining the meaning of multirole fighter. Because of the excellent aerodynamic and structural design of the original F-16, the external lines remain unchanged. The F-16's growth potential, however, has been fully utilized. The aircraft has undergone six major block changes incorporating four generations of core avionics, five engine versions, five radar versions, five electronic warfare suites and two generations of most other subsystems. The growth in avionics processing capability has been exponential: the latest F-16's core computer suite has over 2,000 times the memory and over 260 times the throughput of the original production F-16. These improvements have been accompanied by dramatic improvements in reliability and maintainability. It is no surprise the F-16 is the backbone of the U.S. Air Force and the air forces of many other nations; it is expected to continue in this role for many years. For example, the F-16 will constitute 56 percent of the U.S. Air Force's fighter force through 2010, about the time the Joint Strike Fighter begins production. Plans are for the F-16 to be in service beyond 2020 for the U.S. Air Force and beyond 2030 for other users. The F-16 constitutes a significant portion of NATO's fighter force, with over 800 aircraft purchased by European members and over 100 U.S. Air Force F-16s permanently stationed or deployed at any time at bases in Europe. The U.S. Air Force selected the F-16 as its air combat fighter in 1975. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway announced plans to buy F-16s a few months later, bringing the initial program to 998 aircraft. Before the first decade of production had passed, 17 air forces in 16 nations had ordered more than 3,000 F-16s. Currently more than 4,200 aircraft are on order for 19 countries, including follow-on purchases by most countries. In addition, several countries have acquired used F-16s from U.S. Air Force storage. The first production F-16 was delivered in 1978. The 1,000th was delivered in 1983, the 2,000th in early 1988, the 3,000th in late 1991, and the 4,000th in early 2000. The worldwide F-16 fleet surpassed one million flight hours in 1986, two million in 1988, three million in 1990, four million in 1992, five million in 1994, eight million in 1998, and nine million in 2000. U.S. Air Force flight hours alone topped the five million mark in 1997. The F-16 has undergone extensive evolutionary changes over its long production life. The F-16 Multinational Staged Improvement Program resulted in delivery of the first advanced F-16C/D model in 1984, the first Block 30 version with a choice of engines in 1986, the first Block 40 version with night attack capabilities in 1988, and the first Block 50 aircraft with a more powerful engine and other improvements in 1991 New capabilities have been added to older aircraft through retrofit efforts such as the F-16A/B Operational Capabilities Upgrade and the F-16 Air Defense Fighter program. In 1991, the United States and four European nations began development of the F-16A/B Mid-Life Update to modernize the avionics suites of older aircraft with the latest technologies. Approximately 650 USAF F-16 C/Ds are scheduled to receive the F-16 Common Configuration Implementation Program Modification which includes new avionics, cockpit, and advanced weapons. Other Achievements: * First new fighter to enter service concurrently with U.S. and allied air forces * First front-line U.S. Air Force fighter to be co-produced by U.S. and European industry * Largest and most successful multinational co-production program in the history of aviation * First major military program to receive multiple-year funding from Congress, with three four-year production contracts saving more than $1 billion * Recipient of many production awards and much recognition for cost savings and environmental improvements * First fighter designed with a preplanned product improvement capability * Top scorer in every major bombing competition ? Royal Air Force Bomb Competition, U.S. Air Force Gunsmoke, Tactical Air Command Long Rifle, U.S. Air Forces In Europe Excalibur, Low Country Bomb Derby, Moody Invitational Bombing Competition, and many national competitions in Greece, Pakistan, South Korea, and Turkey * Recognized air combat superiority ? 71 air-to-air victories with no losses in service of five countries. Workhorse of Desert Storm in 1991 ? approximately 13,500 strike sorties ? more than any other aircraft. First combat kills with AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM). Major participant in Operation Determined Force (1995 operations over Bosnia) and Operation Desert Fox (1998 operations over Iraq), employing advanced capabilities in suppression of enemy air defense missions and precision strike missions. Workhorse of Operation Allied Force (Kosovo) in 1999 with 180 F-16s from seven NATO countries flying 7,500 sorties. F-16's introduced the multiplane, multi-aim point-precision strike tactic at night. * Highest reliability of any fighter * Lowest maintenance requirements of any fighter * Highest readiness rates and sortie surge rates of any U.S. fighter * Safest single-engine fighter and safest multirole fighter in U.S. Air Force history * Lowest operation and support cost of any modern fighter * Largest stores list of any fighter - more than 100 weapons, sensor pods and fuel tanks The F-16 has been co-produced by other countries, as well. Fokker in Germany, SABCA in Belgium, and Samsung in South Korea have all built F-16s, plus many other European companies have built components and assemblies for them. So please don't let your biases get in the way of the facts. Granted, an F-16 isn't likely to be a match for an F-22, but it's still at least competitive with practically everything else in the air. Not bad for a design that first flew over 30 years ago and is in current production still. |
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Is it me or is the mishap rate high this year? F-15's breaking in half F-15 down of HI More F-15's breaking in half B-2 crash on Guam B-1 mishap running over truck on Guam F-16 crash Is there any other reason than our shit is getting old and we are flying a lot more for GWOT? |
Wrong. UAE's recent 80 aircraft order came to 85 million per aircraft. South Korea recently paid something liek 107 million for theri new F-15K's (a F-15E variant). |
That's one reason why the Navy got rid of the A-4 and A-7. I watched an EA-4F crash into the San Diego bay after it shit an engine while trying to turn on final for the runway at NAS North Island. One of the main turbine bearings shit itself and blew a hole in an oil scavenge return line. This caused a slow and steady oil leak, but other than that the engine ran ok. The aircraft manual said not to adjust the engine settings and to fly it if it was safe. The pilot set the aircraft up in the landing configuration and was trying to land. When the leading edge slats extened there was a problem, so the pilot grabbed a handful of throttle to correct the problem. All he got was a loud BANG and no thrust. Of went the canopy and BOOM BOOM out went the pilot and NFO. I was flying in an A-3 (2 engines) when it shit an engine. Pilot trimmed the rudder and we did a single engine landing. 
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Mishap rate high? No. Expensive (because of the B-2 bomber crash and the lives lost)? Yes More often than not a primary cause of rising accident rates is due to the lack of training for the pilots due to funding. More flying money is being spent to keep the warbirds in the fight and the training funds have been cut. The op-tempo results in a portion of the pilot force getting a large portion of the flight time (combat flight time) and a portion of the pilot force (training) doing a lot more simulator flying. 
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We only had one break in half. You are thinking about the mid-air collision Eglin had. |
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Identity of fallen pilot released 3/17/2008 - LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFPN) -- An Air Force student pilot, 2nd Lt. David J. Mitchell, 26, from Amherst, Ohio, and assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron here, was killed March 14 when his F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft crashed in a remote area three miles south of Alamo Lake, Ariz. Lieutenant Mitchell was on a two-ship student air-to-air training mission in the Gladden Bagdad military operating area approximately 80 miles northwest of Phoenix. He had a total of 237 flight hours 26 of which were in the F-16. There was no live ordnance on board. He arrived at Luke in November 2007 from the Ohio Air National Guard's 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo to attend the basic student pilot training course. Luke instructors train Air National Guard pilots, as well as active duty, Reserve and sister-service pilots as part of the Basic Course Fighter Training program. A safety and accident investigation board of officers will be convened to determine the cause of the accident. This was the first Luke aircraft crash since Dec. 4, 2006. That crash occurred on the Barry M. Goldwater Range and the pilot safely ejected. "It is with deep regret that I make this announcement, and I want to extend my sincerest condolences to the pilot's family," said Brig. Gen. Tom Jones, 56th Fighter Wing commander. "This is an exceptionally difficult time for David's family, and all of Luke Air Force Base mourns the loss of this great Airman." www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123090417  RIP Lt Mitchell 
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