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Air Force Says F-16 Crashes Are Up

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Air Force Says F-16 Crashes Are Up
By SCOTT LINDLAW – 1 day ago

The dreaded BANG! came from deep within the F-16's lone engine, shaking the warplane as it made passes over an Arizona bombing range last December. Then came the alarming loss of thrust.

Two attempts to restart the engine failed. Having exhausted their options, the pilot and his student bailed out, parachuting to safety before the plane slammed into the Sonoran Desert, a $21 million loss for taxpayers.

Not all F-16 pilots have been so lucky recently. The accident rate for this workhorse fighter has risen over the past few years, and two pilots have died in the past year, according to an Associated Press review of Air Force documents.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, there were 10 "Class A" F-16 accidents — crashes that resulted in death, loss of the aircraft or damage of more than $1 million. (An 11th F-16 crash was counted separately as a combat loss by the military because the pilot was strafing enemy trucks at the time.)

The total was up from nine the previous year, five the year before that and just two the year before that.

The number of crashes has gone up even though the total number of hours flown has dropped steadily over the past five years.

An Air Force official said that one factor appears to be human error, and that pilots and maintenance crews must stay on guard against complacency. Pilot error was blamed for three accidents and the Iraq combat crash last year.

"I liken the problem to a really good football team that drops its guard," said Col. Willie Brandt, the chief of the Aviation Safety Division at the Air Force Safety Center and an F-16 pilot now flying combat missions in Iraq. "We started well this year and were on track, but have slipped a little. If I have a concern it is in the trend I see there."

The rate of Class A accidents this year — 3.18 per 100,000 hours flown — was the highest since 2001, when it was 3.85 because of a rash of engine failures.

The Class A accidents last fiscal year include crashes that happened during training in the United States and Italy. The total also includes several crashes that happened during sorties in Iraq while the pilots were not engaging the enemy.

One expert said that it may be that as the Iraq war drags on, the stress of combat is taking a toll on the 1,300 F-16s in the U.S. fleet, and their pilots.

"That might be putting wear and tear on the planes," said John Pike, director of the Washington-based military think tank Globalsecurity.org. "It might be putting wear and tear on crews."

The F-16 is known in Air Force circles as the "lawn dart" for its tendency to plunge back to Earth when its single engine flames out, and in most years, engine failure causes more accidents than any other factor. But pilot error was responsible for about the same number of F-16 accidents as engine failure in the past year.

An Air Force-wide increase last fiscal year in destroyed aircraft has spurred the service to redouble its efforts to confront human error, Brandt said.

The Air Force Safety Center housed at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico now has a full-time flight surgeon, an aviation physiologist, a life-support specialist and two aviation psychologists on the staff, Brandt said.

"They are constantly immersed in trying to find ways to improve the human side of aviation," he said.

One problem safety experts are on guard against is exhaustion amid the day-and-night sorties F-16 pilots are flying in Iraq.

Ohio Air National Guard Maj. Kevin Sonnenberg, 42, died in June when his F-16 crashed shortly after takeoff from an air base in Iraq. Investigators found he became disoriented while flying in a dust storm at night.

Before taking off at 12:25 a.m., Sonnenberg had complained to his roommate that he was having trouble sleeping, according to an investigation. His squadron mates also said Sonnenberg appeared "slightly fatigued," but investigators found no proof fatigue was responsible for his misjudgments.

Despite the heavy flying responsibilities in the war zone, pilot fatigue is not a widespread problem, Brandt said. The Air Force has strict guidelines governing rest for its pilots, he said.

Pilots must take at least 12 hours off before showing up for duty, and duty on a flying day is limited to 12 hours, or 10 hours at night.

The F-16s damaged or destroyed in fiscal 2006 were worth about $112 million altogether.

The current crash rate remains lower than that seen during the 1980s and 1990s. In the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, engine problems caused the number of F-16 Class A crashes to spike to as many as 18 in one year. Experts pinpointed the problem, fixed it and brought the accident rate down.

There is no indication of such a problem today, Brandt said.

"If I thought there was an issue with the age or safety of the aircraft, I wouldn't fly it, and neither would most of my friends," he said in an e-mail.

A constant challenge, Brandt said, is squeezing the human-error factor out of the crash equation.

"We have aircraft piloted by human beings, designed by human beings, and maintained by human beings," said Brandt. "We are the most combat-tested, combat-experienced force on the planet, and we learn more about ourselves and our business every day. But still we are human and make mistakes."
 
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I don't think the USAF flies F-16 A/B's anymore. So since their models are the C/D's, the planes aren't that old. Most of them would have been manufactured in the mid 80s through mid 90s. It's just that the USAF flies these jets way too much, which causes pilot/ground crew errors.
 
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The article is basically saying that its time for the U.S. to get newer planes.. therefore more funds for F/A-22, JSF, and F-18E/F.
 
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The article is basically saying that its time for the U.S. to get newer planes.. therefore more funds for F/A-22, JSF, and F-18E/F.

Soon F-16 will become a history in US Airforce... JSF and F-18 are to be the next era planes... Raptor is an asset not a numbered force I recon...
 
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Soon F-16 will become a history in US Airforce... JSF and F-18 are to be the next era planes... Raptor is an asset not a numbered force I recon...

F-18 will also be replaced by JSF.JSF will be in huge numbers but different versions for the army, navy and the marines while the F-22 will remain as dominant air superority fighter for the airforce.
 
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I dont think so, the USAF has decided to upgrade the relatively newer F-15's with AESA's, etc so that they can act as second fiddle to the F-22's.

I think that the F-16's will go first.
 
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It's just that the USAF flies these jets way too much, which causes pilot/ground crew errors.
Wouldn't it be reverse? The more they're flown the higher the competence of the flight and ground crew.

The problem is that these jets are in fact getting older especially on account of their flight time.
 
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And after getting the new planes US again going to cash this money and selling out these Junks to every one in the WORLD that cool stuff..

What about our F-16s conditions are any one plzzz...
 
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Well Shocking its a huge amount of F15 some thing must be serious about these planes the other countries having F15 Like Israel Saudia Arabia are also grounded these planes

"Following the grounding after the crash in missouri , flight status has been resumed for F-15 A-D`s - this has now been revoked and the Eagles are back on the Tarmac following the publishing of the reports early findings.

The aircraft are time life expired.

Japan and Israel have also grounded there aircraft , and the USAF has speed restriccted ALL f-15`s to mach 1.5 or below.


in another thread there was discussion about putting AESA into the C models - im sorry but this won`t be happening - the entire fleet in on the ground as the airframes are shot.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Air Force has grounded all its F-15 fighter planes after an accident in Missouri triggered concerns about the ageing fleet, officials said Tuesday.

The decision comes after Japan on Sunday grounded its F-15 fleet after it was informed by US forces that an Air National Guard F-15 fighter jet had crashed.

"The cause of that accident is still under investigation," the US Air Force said in a statement.

"Preliminary findings indicate that a possible structural failure of the aircraft may have occurred. The suspension of flight operations is a precautionary measure."

The Air Force has more than 700 F-15s in its fleet. But until further notice, they will only be used for emergency missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, while F-16s will be used for all routine operations.

"They have some concerns about structural issues with the F-15 that went down," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

"The Air Force is looking at its operational requirements and where they have the newer aircraft and are making some of those available for missions while they take a look at the F-15 and see if they have a more systemic problem throughout the fleet," said Whitman.

"They will still be flying F-15 in support of troops and when there are no other aircraft available."

The plane that crashed on Friday was a 27-year-old F-15C built in Hazelwood, Missouri.

Around 500 of the total F-15 fleet are older models with an average age of around 25 years, Air Force spokesman Cristin Marposon told AFP.

There are also around 223 of the later F-15E models, which are mostly the ones used in Iraq.

The Air Force is trying to replace its oldest F-15s with the F-22 Raptor made by Lockheed Martin, but due to budgetary constraints it has so far only been able to purchase half of the aircraft it has asked for.

The US Congress has given approval for the Air Force to purchase 183 F-22s, although military officials have said they need 381 aircraft. A total of 97 F-22s have already been integrated into the fleet.

But Friday's accident may help step up the replacement program.

"The chief of staff directed the grounding for safety concerns. We will see what comes out of the investigation," Marposon said.

The US Air Force stopped buying F-15s in 2004, but Boeing has continued to produce them for clients in South Korea and Singapore, which ordered 12 new craft at the end of 2005.

In Japan, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters that Tokyo has also suspended flights of F-2 fighter jets after one crashed on takeoff and burst into flames at an airport in central Japan last week.

"We will deal with the task of preventing airspace incursions with our F-4 fighter jets," the oldest model among Japan's fighter jets, Ishiba said.

The Japanese Air Force had 203 F-15s, 68 F-2s and 91 F-4s as of March 2006, a Japanese defence ministry spokesman said.


i presume that the saudi and israeli air force will be following suit.
this problem has left a gaping hole in the allied air defence systems.....
 
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