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 301- 315 [Sorted by Date]
Date Status Local S/N Aircraft AF/Unit Version Info Details
19 Dec 1989 [ i/a] 87251 87- 0251 USAF 36 TFS F-16C Block 30 F Details
Belly landed but stayed on the runway. Pilot did not eject. Aircraft carried wing commanders markings. Minor repairs were made but the aircraft never flew again and went to Sheppard AFB, Texas. Cause of the mishap happened as follows. The centerline tank was installed prior to flight. Leak and transfer check where good, but the pilot did not close the IFR door. The pilot noticed fuel not transferring and punched off the full centerline tank. The F-16 came into view for landing powered by the EPU only and kept the gear up. When the aircraft touched down bright colored flames came from under the aircraft as it slid to a stop, but it did not catch fire.
19 Jan 1991 [ w/o] 87257 87- 0257 USAF 614 TFS F-16C Block 30 F Details
Pilot, Major Jeffrey Scott Tice ejected safely after travelling 150 miles inside Iraq, but became a POW as the ejection took place over Iraq. It was the 8th combat loss and the first daylight raid over Baghdad. The aircraft was struck by an SA-3 just south of Baghdad. Aircraft 86-0225 was brought in to replace this lost aircraft. Major Tice's aircraft aborted and 87-0257 was the spare for that day. Wreckage was later found by the US Marines who contacted the squadron to see what they wanted done with the aircraft as the aircraft was largely intact. Order was give to destroy the aircraft. Location of the crash site was in a section of Iraq that the US Marines had occupied. Most reports have the two losses of F-16's from this squadron switched on this date. Flew 4 missions before being written off.
18 May 1993 [ w/o] 87269 87- 0269 USAF 414 CTS F-16C Block 32 F Details
Written-off at Nellis AFB, Nevada at 12:25 hours. The pilot, Major Scott Anderson, experienced a G-LOC during a BFM exercise with some F-15s and ejected, suffering only a broken legg. The aircraft wore the blue Su-27 scheme.
26 Jan 1994 [ w/o] 87270 87- 0270 USAF 480 FS F-16C Block 30 H Details
Two F-16s (#87-0389 and #87-0270) were doing a formation take-off from Wright-Patterson AFB. At lift off, the lead aircraft (87-0270) pitched nose down. The aircraft did not respond to nose up commands by the pilot so Capt. Anthony Zaccaro ejected successfully. The plane came down in the grass off the left side of the runway. During the slide, the gear struts failed, fuel cells ruptured and a big fire trailed and engulfed the aircraft when it stopped. After that the second aircraft pitched nose down and blew the nose tire braking the nose strut. In this condition the aircraft was unflyable. It was tracking straight down the runway and responded to brake pressure so Lt. Mark Bortiatynski completed an abort and successfully egressed after sliding to a stop. When this aircraft hit the runway, the centerline fuel tank split and the fuel was ignited which left a large trailing fireball.
25 Jun 1995 [ w/o] 87273 87- 0273 USAF 176 FS F-16C Block 30 H Details
Went down 2 miles southeast of Strum, Wisconsin at 10:20 hours after engine began to loose thrust. The pilot, Captain John C. Wasserburger, ejected safely before aircraft impacted the terrain. The F-16 belonged to the Wisconsin ANG at the time of the crash.
06 May 1994 [ w/o] 87274 87- 0274 USAF 80 FS F-16C Block 30 H Details
Collided in mid-air over the Yellow Sea with an F-15C (78-0530) of the 67th FS which was 2 miles off Boryong, South Korea. The resulting crash killed the pilot of the F-15, Captain John Kindred. The F-16 pilot ejected safely.
17 Jun 1992 [ act] 87293 87- 0293 USAF USAF ADS F-16C Block 32 H Details
The aircraft, which was the number one Thunderbird, was badly damaged at Selfridge ANGB. A person drove his vehicle into the side of the Thunderbird F-16 at 70 miles per hour in what was later determined as a suicide. The crash tore out the port main undercarriage of the aircraft, and the aircraft was pushed 14 feet into another Thunderbird F-16C causing damage. The driver did not survive, and the time of the accident was about three in the morning. The aircraft was repaired at Ogden ALC and completed by April 1993. After its repair it was returned to Nellis AFB.
28 Jul 2011 [ sto] 87296 87- 0296 USAF 100 FS F-16C Block 30 H News Article Details
Ran off the runway at Oshkosh at 11.20hrs.
07 May 1991 [ w/o] 87302 87- 0302 USAF 14 TFS F-16C Block 30 H Details
Crashed in Leftwich park after the pilot ejected safely. The site of the crash was 4 miles north of Misawa, Japan. Witness Acount: "The load crew that I was on was doing a FOD walk in front of D-13 or D-15 HAS when it was taking off for a night sortie during an exercise. We noticed sparks coming out of the engine and it slowed down and turned towards lake Ogawara. The pilot then ejected. The aircraft crashed in Leftwich park and took out part of the soft ball field. We were told that the engine came apart." Ultimately it was determined that the main fuel pump valve failed. All F-16 were grounded for 2 weeks and adjustments to this system made.
05 Apr 2017 [ w/o] 87306 87- 0306 USAF 121 FS F-16C Block 30 H News Article Details
The F-16 suffered from an improper assembly of the main engine control and consequently crashed near Andrews AFB at 9:13 hours local. The pilot ejected safely.
14 Feb 1994 [ w/o] 87309 87- 0309 USAF USAF ADS F-16C Block 32 H Details
The crash of Thunderbird no. 6 at Indian Springs Auxiliary Airfield, Nevada. A pilot error was blamed for this training crash involving a manoeuvre called a spiral descent. The pilot, Captain Thomas H. Lewis Ill, survived, but the manoeuvre was discontinued.
Unknown [ act] 87314 87- 0314 USAF 36 TFS F-16C Block 30 H Details
Aircraft got off the runway or taxiway. Repaired and put back into service.
01 Aug 2013 [ act] 87314 87- 0314 USAF 121 FS F-16C Block 30 H News Article Details
The F-16 was involved in a mid-air collision with another F-16 of the 121st FS (#86-0357) when executing a routine night training mission off the coast of Chincoteague, approximately 70 miles southeast of Washington. The accident occurred over water at 22:28 local time. This F-16 landed safely and received minor damage, but the other F-16 crashed, but the pilot ejected and was rescued out of the water at 00:30 local on August 2nd.
27 Dec 2012 [ w/o] 87315 87- 0315 USAF 194 FS F-16C Block 32 J News Article Details
Series of pilot errors resulted in the loss of this F-16 to an inverted stall. The pilot ejected safely and no one on the ground was injured as it was in a remote area of California. According to the results of the accident investigation, the pilot failed to properly recover the aircraft from a high-pitch, low airspeed state, resulting in an inverted deep stall. In addition, the pilot failed to properly apply out-of-control recovery procedures and was unable to recover the aircraft before ejection.
09 Sep 2002 [ w/o] 87316 87- 0316 USAF 522 FS F-16C Block 30 J News Article Details
Crashed killing pilot Captain Benton Zettel. Aircraft was lost 50 miles west of Cannon AFB, New Mexico.

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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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