F-16 Reference

F-16 Aircraft Database

F-16 Accidents & Mishaps for the United States Air Force

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Found 523 aircraft, displaying 16- 30 [Sorted by Date]
Date Status Local S/N Aircraft AF/Unit Version Info Details
22 Mar 1990 [ w/o] 78045 78- 0045 USAF 466 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
Had a mid-air collision with F-16A (#78-0041) near Wendover, Utah. The pilot, Captain Ron 'Zeeman' Zimmerman, ejected safely.
05 Aug 1981 [ w/o] 78046 78- 0046 USAF 4 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
Crashed in the Utah Test & Training Range, killing the pilot, Captain J. Edgington Moats at 14:54 hours. All USAF F-16's were grounded two days later. It was the F-16's second grounding. Cause of accident was a malfunctioning bleed air valve which allowed bleed air to leak out onto the EPU, causing an electrical surge that shut down the flight control computer. The pilot initiated ejection, but was too late.
15 Jan 1982 [ w/o] 78048 78- 0048 USAF 4 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
Impacted the ground east of the Nellis AFB, Nevada. The F-16 was part of a two-ship and both were coming from Hill AFB to bring spare parts. The unit was on a TDY to Nellis at the time of the mishap. 78-0048 landed first and the aircraft was on a normal landing approach. On touchdown the main landing gear collapsed. This was supposed to be impossible but it happened. Probable cause was that the gear was not fully down. The centerline fuel tank exploded on contact with the runway. The pilot selected full afterburner and managed to get the aircraft airborne again. The pilots logic would be that the entire ramp at Nellis was packed with aircraft and that he didn't want his disabled aircraft to slide off the runway and cause a major accident. The pilot climbed to approximately 500 feet, trailing about a 100 feet of flames, banked the aircraft left towards the desert, leveled out and ejected. There was a cheer from everyone who witnessed the accident when the pilots' chute opened. As an additional note: The Thunderbirds had been practicing just moments before the accident. Every practice is videotaped. They missed capturing the entire event on film by just a few moments. Also as a bit of irony: the spare parts were being carried by the aircraft that crashed.
12 Feb 1986 [ w/o] 78055 78- 0055 USAF 3247 TS F-16A Block 5 Details
Flew into the Gulf of Mexico with the pilot, Captain Larry Edward Lee, being killed. The accident happened during the early AMRAAM program. While flying over the Gulf of Mexico at approximately 2500 ft and Mach 1.5, the pilot was performing 9G wind up turns to stress the aircraft and weapon system. The engine exploded and departed the aircraft through the backbone. Capt. Lee ejected at over Mach 1 breaking both arms causing him to drown. The aircraft was recovered from the Gulf of Mexico where it was inspected to determine the cause of the accident.
11 May 1982 [ w/o] 78067 78- 0067 USAF 388 TFW F-16A Block 5 Details
Impacted the ground at Great Salt Lake, Utah. A birdstrike caused the radom to shred and the F-16 to loose control.
25 Jun 1980 [ w/o] 78071 78- 0071 USAF 4 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
The aircraft was lost in a yellow flag exercise caused by fuel starvation. The pilot bailed out at approximately 300 ft when a flame-out approach to a dirt road didn't turn out to be the best solution.
19 Jun 1984 [ w/o] 78072 78- 0072 USAF 72 TFTS F-16A Block 5 Details
Crashed at the airport in Bartow, Florida. Pilot ejected safely.
10 Oct 1986 [ w/o] 78075 78- 0075 USAF 466 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
Crashed while flying a mission from CAF Cold Lake. The crash was caused by an engine flame-out. The pilot ejected safely.
09 Aug 1979 [ w/o] 78078 78- 0078 USAF 57 FWW F-16B Block 1 Details
F-16 write-off number one. The aircraft was written off in a crash while on approach to Hill AFB, Utah. The pilot at the controls was a Belgian pilot on the OT&E team. The pilot had refueled and forgot to close the aerial refueling door. Therefore, he could not get gas from his external tanks, which were de-pressurized for the refueling. Worse, the B-model lowered flaps when refueling to provide increased clearance between the boom and the canopy. So he couldn't get external fuel (had two big external tanks) and if he slowed down the flaps extended. He had plenty of internal gas originally, but apparently failed to monitor the actual amount of internal fuel and suddenly the 'low fuel' light came on! His 'total' fuel was way up, but all the gas in the external tanks was unusable due to no pressurization. He had to manually select the tanks of interest, otherwise what you saw on the gauge was 'total' fuel. The pilot tries for Hill AFB and slows to best range speed, slow enough for the trailing flaps to come down and increasing drag/fuel consumption. The F-16 flames out on downwind and the pilot tries for a deadstick landing, unfortunately he couldn't make it and punches out really low. The now pilot-less plane actually made it to the runway overrun and pancakes but was a total lost.
22 Oct 1997 [ act] 78088 78- 0088 USAF 416 FLTS F-16B Block 1 Details
Suffered a mid-air collision with AT-38B 62-3746 which were both photo chasing B-1B 84-0049 for a weapons separation test. The AT-38B crashed with both on board being killed. The F-16 landed safely with damage to the left wingtip.
23 Jul 1980 [ w/o] 78092 78- 0092 USAF 388 TFW F-16B Block 1 Details
Impacted the ground on the Eagle range, Utah. The crew, Capt. Don Stuart and Capt. Larry Danner, ejected safely and were uninjured. During the second low angle bomb pass on the Eagle Range target, the engine stagnated when the throttle was advanced from idle following bomb release. Airspeed was traded for altitude, but both the primary and backup control airstart attempts were unsuccessful and they bailed out at about 1500 feet. The subsequent investigation revealed an alignment pin was missing from a critical valve in the engine compressor variable geometry system which precluded restart.
15 May 1995 [ w/o] 78093 78- 0093 USAF 148 FS F-16B Block 1 Details
Crashed at about 14:00 hours in an open range area about 25 miles east of Lordsburg, New Mexico, on a training mission from its base at Tucson IAP. Both the instructor pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Carl J. Thomae and his student pilot, First Lieutenant Abdulla Al-Khalifa from Bahrain, ejected safely.
Unknown [ act] 78098 78- 0098 USAF 311 TFTS F-16B Block 1 Details
Suffered a nose landing gear collaps during landing at Luke AFB. A Depot Field Team from Hill AFB replaced the forward equipment bay and the forward portion of the intake. It was repaired in late 1984.
17 Jul 2001 [ w/o] 78100 78- 0100 USAF 416 FTS F-16B Block 5 News Article Details
The pilot, Major Aaron George and Lockheed photographer Judson Brohmer were killed. Incident occurred at 7:00 hours about 30 miles east of China Lake. The F-16 was flying a photo/safety chase position on a 2nd F-16 on a test mission to demonstrate reliability improvements on a MALD (Miniature Air Launch Decoy). Following the launch of the MALD, the MALD's engine failed. The MALD descended at a 20 degree angle until 8,996 feet where a drogue shoot deployed followed by a recovery parachute at 7,000 feet. It drifted into mountainous terrain. The mishap aircraft was collecting video coverage of the MALD's launch, recovery, and landing. In order to maintain optimum position for video taping the MALD, the pilot had to execute barrel roll maneuvers to avoid passing the MALD. As the MALD's drogue shoot deployed, the mishap pilot executed a 3rd barrel roll maneuver, to maintain position which placed him at a steep, inverted, high speed dive that he was unable to recover. The crash was caused by channelized attention on the MALD and loss of altitude awareness.
Unknown [ act] 78101 78- 0101 USAF 311 TFTS F-16B Block 5 Details
Pilot received a warning light indicating a failure of the nose gear to lock. Upon landing the pilot kept the nose up as long as possible, but when the nose came down the nose gear did collapse. Damage was not extensive and was repaired and flew again at Luke AFB. Exact date of the mishap is unknown but believed to have happened in 1985.

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Abbreviations and symbols:
[act] Active [i/a] Instructional Airframe [sto] Stored (e.g. at AMARG)
[cld] Cancelled Order [msh] Involved in Mishap [w/o] Write-off
[con] Converted [o/o] On Order
[des] Destroyed (drone) [pre] Preserved (museum, gateguard) T/V LM Aero Type/Version (Construction) number
[emb] Embargoed [scr] Scrapped Photo Available
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Errors and Omissions

Mar 04, 2022 - 09:51 AM
F-16 CRASH

I couldn't find the Edwards AFB crash of 2001 in this list. I was trying to find what tail number it was.


Mar 04, 2024 - 06:45 AM
Jan 82

Some time in the 80s a f16 landing at nellis missed the the arresting Hook and went thru the barrier at end of runway and came to rest in 3 pieces on the golf course

Pilot was cut out of cockpit and walked away





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