Yet another Air Force F-16 crashes....

[mriya225]

This makes the third USAF F-16 crash in less than two months... What's going on here?
I know this is primarily a U.K. civil aviation forum but I was wondering if any of you all might have any inside dope on these aircraft?
I suppose it could be just a coincidence, but this frequency seems a little alarming to me.


Air Force F-16 Crashes in Mountainous Area of California; Fate of Two-Member Crew Unknown
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 17, 2001

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - An Air Force F-16 chase plane crashed Tuesday in a remote mountainous area of eastern California.
There was no immediate word if the plane's two crew members survived.

The F-16, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., took off from Edwards Air Force Base on a photo mission to record the test flight of another aircraft.

It went down about 7 a.m. some 30 miles east of the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, in an area capped with volcanic peaks.

A board of officers will investigate the accident of the roughly $30 million plane.

In June, an Air Force pilot was killed while on a training mission in South Korea. Witnesses said the plane hit an electricity pole before crashing and exploding in flames.

In March, the pilot of an F-16 fighter out of Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico ejected safely before the jet crashed near a bombing range. The pilot told investigators the jet's single engine failed.

AP-ES-07-17-01 1239EDT
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAR5PAW9PC.html

[jetfueldrinker]

Hi Mriya. Long time no posts from you. How have you been?

In 1979, I was at Leewarden, Holland, and our hosts were the first squadron to take delivary of the F-16 aircraft in Europe. We were sadned to learn, some 4 weeks after we went back to our base at Gutersloh, Germany, that an F-16 and crew were lost in the North Sea. The aircraft was never recovered.

In 1987, while at Nellis AFB, an F-16 went down just off the runway, but this time the pilot banged out successfuly. Although I was on duty and on the flight line at the time, I somehow missed all the excitement, but the aircraft did not appear to be too badly damaged. From those who saw what went on, it appeared that the aircraft was doing a fly past at low level, but the aircraft touched down at very high speed. Very strange.

Also, after its introduction, the Harrier had a very high loss rate, about 12 a year at its worst. This was down to many factors, all of which were rectified, and I am glad to say that the loss rate is now much lower. In one incident that a Harrier crashed, the engine flamed out and the pilot tried to restart it. As the trees were getting closer, he decided to eject, but when he was safely parachuting down, he looked for his aircraft and couldn't see it below him! As he ejected, the engine restarted, and the aircraft was on a course towards East Germany, fully armed, and there was no pilot on board to fly it! Oh panic! Aircraft were scrambled to shoot it down, but that didn't work, so they flew close to it, fliping the wing tips until eventually the Harrier ran out of fuel and crashed in open fields.

But as to your enquiry regarding any problems with the F-16's, sorry I cannot help out, but I am sure that someone will. (If the CIA don't get to him first!)