F-16 crashes near Joint Base Andrews
WTOP reports that an F-16 has crashed in southern Maryland near Joint Base Andrews;
[Prince George’s County Fire & EMS spokesman Mark] Brady said one pilot parachuted out. The pilot was located nearby but not in the immediate area of the crash, Brady said. The pilot was picked up by a military helicopter and taken to an area hospital. His condition is unknown.
Prince George’s County officials are standing by in the immediate area of the crash, according to Brady. They have not directly approached the aircraft.
@WTOP Huge explosion on Woodyard Rd. Please investigate.@PGCCommunity @RushernBaker pic.twitter.com/cgCwburJ0C
— Kent Roberson (@KentARoberson) April 5, 2017
From WTTG Fox5;
The U.S. Air Force reported that the pilot is a member of the D.C. Air National Guard 113th Fighter Wing and was able to safely eject from the F-16 before the crash happened about 6 miles from National Harbor. No one else was believed to be on the plane.
Thanks to Chip for the link.
Category: Air Force
Fox is now reporting that two pilots were recovered.
F-15 are usually a two seater. I didn’t catch that in the first time I read it and posted this to Jonn.
Fellow Airman Chip, there are many more single seat versions of the F-15 (A, C, J), than the 2 seaters (B, D, E). Peace bro.
*CORRECTION* and now this makes sense…
The D.C> ANG unit 113th at Andrews is an F-16 unit and they there should have been only one pilot as first reported.
Jebus, 19 years stationed there and I just didn’t make the connection.
FAKE NEWS!!!
/I’m a dumbass.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/05/military-jet-crashes-after-taking-off-from-joint-base-andrews-report.html
Ummm 20 to 40 million dollar aircraft, given to some pimply faced kid that daddy would not even allow to use the family car……nothing has changed!
A witness told Fox 5 DC that he was sitting on his porch when he heard a loud explosion. He said the jet was on fire and he saw the pilot eject.
“It was the biggest fire ball I’ve ever seen in my life,” the man identified as Patrick told reporters.
He said he ran into the woods after the plane crashed and saw the pilot standing up. Patrick said the pilot asked if the neighborhood was OK because he had live rounds on board.
(I’ll wait for confirmation on this, but that could be an issue with recovery at the crash site, not the neighborhood)
Thank goodness Pilot AND neighborhood are okay.
PG County? No cleanup needed, whatever is left will be stripped, fenced, and gone within hours.
Dodged a disaster there. Glad the pilot is ok & able to miss the houses.
What is going on with airplanes this week?
Yeah, I noticed that. Glad I’m not flying this week.
I read some stat a few years that the deadliest years for class A mishaps per flight hours in the history of the USAF were in the early 50’s. So many pilots died in crashes at Nellis AFB especially in the F-86 Sabre & the Century Series, that the base flag was almost always at half mast. The late great Col John Boyd considered it the cost of doing business practicing aggressive maneuvers & tactics.
Wasn’t Nellis the home of AWS back then just like it is today?
Seems to me it’s one thing to have a high accident rate in a place/time where people are learning how to “fly on the ragged edge” and at times attempting to do exactly that. IMO it’s another thing altogether when that begins happening regularly during routine proficiency flying.
Not an aviator, so perhaps I’m out to lunch on this one.
Yeah, it is. The “Home Of The Fighter Pilot” as Nellis likes to brand itself. Been there a few times on TDY.
The learning curve in the early days of the jet age probably had alot to do w/ all the accidents. BTW John Boyd as a captain was an instructor at the FWS Nellis.
Based on reading Robert Coram’s book, FWS was some tough shit…you had to be a great stick guy, but it’s the class room curriculum that washed out some very BAMF fighter pilots.
Hmm. Seems to me that I’ve read somewhere that his nickname while there was “40 second Boyd”.
(smile)
The F-100 was notorious for the “Sabre dance” on landing, once it started their was no recovery, ejection would’ve only had the pilot land in the aircrafts fireball at those attitudes & altitude
They never used to carry live 20mm or missiles for routine training flights. I imagine that changed after 9-11 though.
The 113th stands ASA duty and does tend to have live rounds loaded on a few more jets than just the alert birds…just in case. Deployed with them to Bagram several years ago….and knowing the pilot is okay means I can start hoping it was a certain tail number that made the smoking hole……
File under “Democratic budget consequences.”
Wish we could file criminal negligence charges against them.
I wish it were that simple. The Republican Congress was complicit.
True. I was rather simplistic in my aspersion.
Another reminder that the F-16, at all times, is a single mechanical failure from being a glider with tiny wings. Relatively speaking – the F-16 is an inexpensive fighter. Unfortunately, the F-35 has the same lack of engine redundancy. But at roughly $125M per copy, losing an F-35 will hurt much, much more financially than an F-16.
not a glider, more like an aerodynamic rock straight down
reminds me now a days as it was during the Carter years…lack of spares which leads to dodgy maintenance in an aging fleet of aircraft
I remember when we had a major problem with the P&W TF30-P9 engines spitting up parts on the F-111D and HSI’s experiencing chronic failures as well in the mid 70’s and all were grounded except maybe 6 aircraft for a few months…Carter = Obama both sucked at leadership and guess who gets too pay the price ? taxpayers and airman
Aging fleet, yes. Dodgy maintenance, no. The parts may not be flowing like they used to from a robust supply chain, but no one is hacking things together either. These are very professionally and carefully maintained jets, regardless of age and constraints.
I also read that the Navy IPs are refusing to fly due to contaminated Oxygen causing hypoxia in their trainers.
Also, can any of you AF types explain Jonn’s F-16 photo at the top of the article? Maybe I’m looking at it wrong, but what is that protuberance just behind the cockpit? I’m used to the fuselage being smooth and rounded there. Upon a google search I found an artist rendering of the F-16V with that weird thing on it. What is it?
Thanks in advance.
Conformal fuel tanks.
Reduces drag or something? Can they be ditched?
Never had to deal with them, so I am not sure about being able to ditch them but I lean towards no. One of the ideas was to add more range and still have wing stations free for weapons
Random note, that is not a USAF F-16, but one that belongs to the UAE.