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

F-16 Aircraft Database

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



Found 451 aircraft, displaying 16-24 [Sorted by Date]
Date Status Local S/N Aircraft AF/Unit Version Info Details
05 Aug 1981 [w/o] 78046 78-0046 USAF 34 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
Crashed in the Utah Test & Training Range, killing the pilot, Captain J. Edgington Moats. 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
15 Jan 1982 [w/o] 78048 78-0048 USAF 16 TFTS 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.
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 16 TFTS 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.
23 Jul 1980 [w/o] 78092 78-0092 USAF 388 TFW F-16B Block 1 Details
Impacted the ground on the Eagle range, Utah. Crew ejected safely.

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Abbreviations and symbols:
[act] Active [msh] Involved in Mishap [w/o] Write-off
[cld] Cancelled Order [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
[i/a] Instructional Airframe [sto] Stored (e.g. at AMARG)



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