Crew Ejects From Qatari F-15QA Fighter While On The Ground At Airport Near St. Louis

[NutLoose]

Sitting there quite happy minus the crew, I take it it rolled off the taxiway / runway on its own.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40667/crew-ejects-from-qatari-f-15qa-fighter-while-on-the-ground-at-airport-near-st-louis



Update, 12:20 pm EST: The Air Force has released the following statement that confirms many of the details that we’ve already reported: “An F-15QA, recently accepted by the Air Force from the Boeing Corporation, departed the runway today at MidAmerica Airport, Ill. Two U.S. active-duty pilots who were on board ejected safely and received minor injuries. The aircraft was slated to be transferred to the Qatari Air Force through the Foreign Military Sales program. The incident is currently under investigation.”

Update, 13:20 pm EST: A report from Military.com (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/05/18/2-us-military-pilots-eject-qatari-f-15-illinois-airport.html) has confirmed that the mishap, which occurred on landing, involved crew from the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Both pilots sustained minor injuries, but only one was taken to hospital, as per the previous account. Both pilots are assigned to the Defense Contract Management Agency (https://www.dcma.mil/), which works with contractors to ensure equipment delivery, the aircraft in question having been handed over by Boeing earlier this week.

[NutLoose]

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1000x638/image_6c4a9c730b767caa6901400218a7cc9c543ca5e0.jpeg

[gums]

Salute!

Well.... we know the zero-zero seats worked!

Gums sends...

[Longtimer]

:)The picture does not show any damage to the aircraft but the crew evidently "ejected".

F-15QA bound for Qatar declares emergency F-15QA bound for Qatar declares emergency upon landing, leaves runway in Illinois; USAF pilots eject safely (airforcetimes.com) (https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2021/05/18/f-15qa-bound-for-qatar-declares-emergency-upon-landing-leaves-runway-in-illinois-usaf-pilots-eject-safely/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+defense-news%2Fair+%28Defense+News+-+Arc+RSS+-+Air%29)

[Load Toad]

Question from someone that knows nothing about these things...

After such an ejection is the plane damaged significantly, or repairable?

[Octane]

Question from someone that knows nothing about these things...

After such an ejection is the plane damaged significantly, or repairable?

Ask the RAAF:}

[Stitchbitch]

Ask the RAAF:}
:}

In normal circumstances it's feasible to repair the damage to the cockpit floor, bulkhead, instruments, canopy, fit new seats, rails and dependant on other damage, put the aircraft back into use. Damage the frame, and all bets are off.

[Nolongerin]

Back in 1976, we had a rear seat ejection from Harrier T2 which was then landed by the front seat pilot. The aircraft was porpoising as it overflow the airfield at Wildenrath. The ejection appeared to clear the problem. The rear seat pilot survived , uninjured if I remember correctly. Whilst the aircraft stayed in the hangar for many a week until the problem was resolved ( fine silt in the hydraulic oil getting into the rear PFCU platten), I think we just fitted another seat and canopy. It did return to squadron flying.
ps. I watched the T2 ejection from the car park as we were turning up for Friday midday shift change.
pps. I was working on top of that T2 some weeks later, when a GR1, possibly GR3, had an engine disintegrate (LP stage 3 stator root cracking) on take off and I watched that pilot eject. (Summers day, side hangar doors wide open with great views of the runway). Again I think he survived but with some injuries.

[NutLoose]

As it's brand new I should imagine it will be repaired, the instruments now are all TV screens on that version, see


https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19731/qatars-f-15s-will-feature-new-low-profile-heads-up-display-and-new-cockpit

[gulliBell]

I should imagine the Qatari's will want a brand new brand new one, not a brand new repaired one. That will be an interesting discussion between those who bought it and those who broke it.

[atakacs]

Any theory as if what triggered this (short of pulling on the leveller)?
Seems odd

[Courtney Mil]

Interesting to note where the intake ramps are. Fully up. Well, at least the left one.

[CUTiger78]

Somehow it doesn't seem right for the crew to punch out on takeoff and have the airplane end up wheels down just off the runway.

[TWT]

CUTiger78, it was a landing incident, not a takeoff incident. From the article linked in the OP :

Update, 13:20 pm EST: A report from Military.com (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/05/18/2-us-military-pilots-eject-qatari-f-15-illinois-airport.html) has confirmed that the mishap, which occurred on landing, involved crew from the U.S. Air Force and Navy

[CUTiger78]

Ooops, my mistake.
Kinda makes the punchout seem even stranger, punching out of an airplane already on the ground that ended up rolling to a stop.

[Buster Hyman]

I should imagine the Qatari's will want a brand new brand new one, not a brand new repaired one. That will be an interesting discussion between those who bought it and those who broke it.
Good luck with that!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/no-compensation-for-fiery-growler-crash-subs-costs-growing/11749446

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/866x373/ea_18g_engine_failure_at_nellis_detail_524a9b0d066b2c1dce8aa d99900bf63478779303.jpg

[TBM-Legend]

Somehow it doesn't seem right for the crew to punch out on takeoff and have the airplane end up wheels down just off the runway.


​​​​​​https://adbr.com.au/raaf-super-hornets-growlers-back-in-the-air/

RAAF is fixing this baby....

[zerograv]

Thought that this things were made of metal, but it certainly doesn't look like that.

The whatever fiber is made of is better at reducing radar return ? (besides any other possible advantages)

[atakacs]

Do we have any modicum of explanation as of what happened?!

[TWOTBAGS]

Errr no their not,
311 was stripped of anything useable by 6Sqn techo's before the airframe was Cat5'd.

[LandingCheck]

The good news is that they can put the thing on a truck and be back at the factory in about an hour!

[NutLoose]

https://theaviationist.com/2021/05/20/f-15qa-recovery/

As per standard procedure for aircraft departing the runway, the two crew members, one from the U.S. Air Force and one from the Navy (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/05/18/2-us-military-pilots-eject-qatari-f-15-illinois-airport.html), both assigned to the DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency), ejected from the F-15QA and sustained minor injuries. One was taken to the hospital for additional checks.

The aircraft, that sports the tail code 0010 (QA010/17-0010), has been recovered and while the airframe seems to be in “good shape”, the damage to the glass cockpit, as a consequence of the ejection seat rockets, will have to be assessed.

[atakacs]

So they "departed the runway" (any idea why? Mechanical? Weather?) and punched out. And the aircraft continued to roll on it own until it stopped pretty much intact. Wow...

[TBM-Legend]

US Navy exchange NFO created the command ejection in the recent RAAF F/A-18F wobble on the runway at RAAF Amberley too....he's back in America I believe.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

So they "departed the runway" (any idea why? Mechanical? Weather?) and punched out. And the aircraft continued to roll on it own until it stopped pretty much intact. Wow...

Pretty reasonable SOP to eject in the event of leaving the runway at any speed - rollover risk is extremely high, with obvious negative outcomes. The fact that, in this case, the jet didn't roll over doesn't make the SOP wrong.

As to why it left the runway in the first place, who knows...

[TBM-Legend]

The RAAF Super Hornet was about 100m into its takeoff roll only