I've had worse.

WOW!

Now THAT is a GOOD pilot! [beer]

(We'll thank the angel that held that wing up later...) [;)]

These pix proves it, this site is much better for news than the general mass news media. Awesome pix.

He must have take lessons from the Israeli who landed this one.
[img]http://www.usrcjc.org/photogallery/F15Wing/F15Wing1[1].jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.usrcjc.org/photogallery/F15Wing/F15Wing2[1].jpg[/img]

I can't help but wonder if the crew would have considered bailing out, if they had been provided with parachutes and survival gear (and training).

Anyone have the registration number of the jet? In the second picture, I believe we are seeing the registration, and it's not US-registered. Looks maybe like OA-DLL?

Bet there some aircrew cleaning their pants out that day.Hope they don't start shooting at my planes!!!!

I don't think people can actually parachute out of a disable aircraft like in WWII etc.

It has been widely reported in the general/mass news media that it was a DHL plane that was hit by a SAM.

I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing someone landed that F-15.. it is missing the whole right wing. it would have no lift whatsoever on that side.. unless the wing fell off after touchdown.. You have any background on the story behind it?

Here's a report of the incident I received from a buddy:

"Aircraft was hit at 8000 FT, lost  ALL hydraulics and therefore had no
flight controls, actually did a missed  approach using only engine
thrust and eventually (after about 16mins) landed  heavily on runway 33L
at Baghdad. This was fortunate because with no steering  the aircraft
veered of the runway to the left, had they landed on 33R veering to  the
left would have taken them straight into the fire  station.

The aircraft then travelled about  600 metres through soft sand taking
out a razor wire fence in the process, see  LH engine pic, and came to
rest almost at the bottom of the sloping area between  the runway and a
taxiway.

All three crew evacuated safely down  the second slide, the first one
tore on the razor wire."


"The point of entry pics show where a  projectile entered Tank 1A, which
was full of fuel, and, after it ignited,  proceeded to burn away at the
spar. The fuel tank ribs in the area directly in  front of the O/B flap
are burnt almost 50% through.

The crew obviously did a fantastic  job in getting the aircraft back on
to the ground and one can only assume  that it was most fortunate that
they were not aware of the state of the  wing as they could not see it
from the cockpit."

These guys were either very good or very lucky or more likely both. Flying a large jet without hydraulics and therefore without flight controls is not something anyone practices and there really aren't any procedures for it. This is similar to what the UAL DC10 at Souix City tried to do and almost pulled it off. Although these guys also had a raging fire on one of their wings to make it even more exciting. Much more wing burned away and this probably not have been survivable.

DHL is a Brussels,Belgium company.That A-300 still looks in better shape than some of the junk that showed up at Cincinnati hub.Had a few contractor DC-8s and 727s that lost a few parts on their way in to Cincy(gear parts and flap track fairings).BTW,because DHL is not a US owned company,they could'nt buy the airline part of Airbourne Express.(like to know what will happen to ABX hub in Wilmington OH)? DHL stands for Delivery Hours Late,Dewey Huey Lewey.

Ditto on that one....We are not getting the whole story on this...

It's true. That is not the only time that an F-15 has been landed sucessfully after losing all or substantially all of one wing. The fuselage of the F-15 provides a substantial amount of lift, allowing for some amazing recoveries like the one pictured above.

Ask any F-15 driver about this and they will say the same thing--the F-15 fuselage provides enough lift to successfully land the plane even after losing all or part of one wing.

I'll do some digging to see if I can find any of the official stories regarding the above situation, but if you look around you'll probably find something about it too.

That F-15 looks like it got in a fight with a fuel truck or something large and lost.When I worked for DHL,the contractor fueling service had a fuel truck go into the side of a DHL B-727-100 at 10 MPH or so,did a helluva number on the 72,totaled the fuel truck.

About the IAF F15...

I was watching a Discovery Wings Channel show about F15s and they discussed this incident.

The pilot of the plane in the above pictures slammed into another plane in mid air (I think it was his wing man). Apparently he was traveling so fast that the F15 acted more like a rocket than a plane. Of course, landing is another story since you need slow speed and lots of lift.  

Upon landing the crew of the damaged F15 nearly shit their pants when they saw the extent of the damage. Engineers from McDonnel-Douglas looked the plane over and couldn't believe it either.

I still don't know if the story was entirely true, but a lot of planes can fly with extreme damage so I suppose this is possible.