F-16 Hits Trees At Ridgeline. With after mishap photos

I dubbed out the audio in the first part of the video for the pilots privacy and out of respect. He gave a very good/magnanimous/honest critique of his flight. He did not fully understand the ground warning system (he misunderstood), he also forgot to reset the altitude on the warning system.

The fact that F-16 survived is a testament to General Dynamics. Since this is only a single-engine fighter fact the engine was able to run and run long enough after ingesting parts of the tree to get the plane back safely is a credit to the engine manufacturer. I am not sure which engine this aircraft had at the time, General Electric or Pratt & Whitney. They are all excellent manufacturers.

The consensus is that it was a Pratt & Whitney engine.

Note: Every time his collision warning came on he was less then 50 feet off the ground, trees are not normally detected as ground, that is part of the reason for the mishap. A lot of trees are higher then 50 feet.

Don't be fooled by the funny filler music, I love this plane.

You might have seen part of this clip before, but I doubt the GP has seen all this before.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• F-16
• Falcon
• Mishap
• Crash
• General
• Dynamics
• Electric
• Pratt
• Whitney
• Fighter
• Pilot
• Flight
• Jet

[drgrit]

clearly the excuses about ground warning systems in such hilly topography are completely irrelevant when you look at the evidence of cowboy flying in front of your eyes! why would the pilot even bother to embarrass himself with this statement?

[ATFSCrash]

Though it's a pretty lame excuse it serves as a warning to others that might make the same alleged assumptions and lack of understanding about the warning systems.

It is necessary to take risks and fly somewhat like a cowboy on some occasions. This was a remote area so there was little danger to the public. There almost always is some risks in realistic training. Like they say; train like you fight and fight like you train. However he was flying lower than is generally permitted/acceptable.

[OmegaForceAirsoft]

Wow man... you must be a super shit hot pilot or something. I guess you've both hit the ground AND had a compressor stall, b/c the way you try to pretend you know the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground ALMOST sounds like you have real world experience... but from your "need to know profile" I doubt it.

[crispycritterz]

Bet he's still writing paper on that one.

[4wheeldrifting]

was he flying at night?

[oldupchuck2]

That song compresses 39 years of my commercial jet riding SO WELL...Love that song......BEAT UP OLD JET AIRLINER.....I like the ones years ago sitting outside in the rain,dripping hydrolic oil from various points on the wings and body...lovely...lovely frickin thoughts.. iv'e had a bird strike on take off,said bird was ingested by the starboard engine,which caused said engine to throw 10 quick fireballs out the exhaust..aborted fly around..then,had a bad landing in vegas,microburst,landed hard

[GTMustangRider]

That pilot probably doesn't hear the end of it about this mishap. Did you hear his comment; "there was a definite feeling of IMPACT like a bad compressor stall"; hitting the ground and a tree is not even in the same ball park as a compressor stall, it's not even the same f^ckin' sport. Hitting the ground is hitting the ground and a compressor stall is a compressor stall, it's not alike. He should have said, "There was a definite feeling of impact when I hit the ground and the tree."

[sstepko]

Agreed... I've heard the unedited version and the pilots comments after the mishap really drive it home...

I wish I could see a fouo mishap report too... I kinda find it hard to believe that the pilot "did not fully understand the ground warning system" I can see him setting it wrong, but unless it was a new system I don't get how he could be cleared to fly low level like that and not understand a system on the aircraft... but who knows, just my .02

[gjefle]

that was a good landing

[dirtyDielo]

lol love the song !!!!!!!

[Kingfishersquadron75]

Could someone fill me in on the combat survivability of an F16 after incurring damage from a missile or other projectile?

[stevethepilot]

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing. You should check out the Israeli F-15 that landed with only 1 wing.