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 421-429 [Sorted by Date]
Date Status Local S/N Aircraft AF/Unit Version Info Details
03 Apr 2001 [w/o] 90837 90-0837 USAF 14 FS F-16D Block 50A Details
Went down over the Pacific Ocean 12 miles northwest of Misawa, Japan. Pilot, First Lieutenant Mark Hadley, ejected and was rescued by a Japanese military HH-60 after 35 minutes of being in the ater. Cause of the crash was FOD to the engine. This caused a blade from the third stage compressor to come loose which punctured the engine's compressor section. Pilot as a result was unable to re-light the engine. The aircraft was from the 14th FS but the pilot belonged to the 13th FS. In May, 80% of the wreckage was recovered, including the engine. A US Navy diver Seaman Matthew Draughon was killed on May 5th, 2001 during the recovery of debris.
13 Jan 1995 [w/o] 90849 90-0849 USAF 22 FS F-16D Block 50B Details
Crashed near Durbuy (impacted in a sand trap on the Five Nations Golf Course), Belgium while on a routine training mission from Spangdahlem. The two man crew, Capt. Tom Smith and SrA.Jason Fowler, ejected safely. Backseater was an inlisted on an incentive ride. The crashed caused the grounding of all F110-GE-129 powered block 50 aircraft on the fourth day after, January 17th. A three hour inspection of the fan blades on each aircraft were performed. Some aircraft were flyable the same day, while others over the next few days. This mishap was the third in a row in five months.
14 Sep 2006 [w/o] 91337 91-0337 USAF 22 FS F-16C Block 50B News Article Details
The aircraft suffered a landing gear failure near Spangdahlem AB after hitting an antenna during a landing attempt. It ran out of fuel before the problem could be fixed and the pilot, 1st Lieutenant Trevor Merrell, executed a controlled bailout. The accident was caused by a visual illusion at Spangdahlem AB. The runway has an upslope, making the pilot think he is coming in too high, forcing him to take a lower approach, with all consequences.
08 Oct 1993 [w/o] 91350 91-0350 USAF 23 FS F-16C Block 50C Details
The aircraft crashed at 1830 hours on a delivery flight at Remsen, near Griffiss AFB, New York. Air Force investigators have concluded that night fog and a blown fuse in instruments that receive landing information were the cause of the crash. Pilot ejected safely. The F-16 cut a 1,000-foot swath through the trees off Joslyn Road before coming to rest in a fiery heap 500 feet from the home of Nick and Diane Polce. The aircraft was being delivered from Fort Worth, Texas to the 23rd FS in Spangdahlem AB, Germany.
11 Jul 1996 [w/o] 91354 91-0354 USAF 77 FS F-16C Block 50C Details
Crashed about 15:30 hours into a house in Pensacola, Florida, following an engine failure 20 miles north of Pensacola while on route from Shaw AFB to Eglin AFB to avoid hurricane Bertha. The pilot was forced to eject two miles short of the runway. A child in the house was killed. A man and woman in the house suffered burns. The pilot ejected safely. The accident investigation showed foreign object damage to a fan blade caused a crack seven thousands of an inch (too small to visually spot). The blade was ingested into the engine. The engine had failed three times during the flight with two relighting's. With the third engine failure the pilot ditched the aircraft into what he hoped was an unpopulated area, and ejected at only 200 feet.
15 Aug 2009 [act] 91364 91-0364 USAF 77 FS F-16C Block 50D News Article Details
During a night training sortie #91-0364 collided with #91-0365 over the Atlantic Ocean approx 126 nautical miles southeast of Shaw AFB. The aircraft suffered moderate damage to flight control surfaces and external stores. The jet recovered to Charleston AFB. #91-0365 crashed after the impact and was destroyed.
15 Oct 2009 [w/o] 91365 91-0365 USAF 77 FS F-16C Block 50D News Article Details
During a night training sortie #91-0365 collided with #91-0364 over the Atlantic Ocean approximately 126 nautical miles southeast of Shaw AFB. The pilot did not survive the collision
Jun 2005 [act] 91374 91-0374 USAF 422 TES F-16C Block 52D Details
Chalks wash out on F-16C #90-0809 during storm and the aircraft rolled into F-16C #91-0374 causing wing tip missile to puncture 374 right under nose. Unknown if the aircraft was marked 53 TEG at the time or not.
Jan 2002 [act] 91377 91-0377 USAF 77 FS F-16C Block 50D Details

Struck by lightning during a sand storm while deployed for OSW. Was the lead aircraft of a two ship formation at an altitude of 35,000 to 40,000 feet when the wall of sand surrounded the aircraft and there was nowhere to go but through the storm. When the lightning strike occurred, the airspeed dropped to zero and the aircraft fell into a flat spint in the orange sand sky. Fortunately the pilot recovered but bottomed out at an altitude of only 500 feet.

Chris, the Crew Chief of #377 describes the experience: "We got the squacks saying my jet was code three for a lightning strike and the other was code one. That was strange to me because there really wasn't too much lightning out there and I had never seen a jet get struck by lightning. Anyway when the jet came in 15-20 minutes later, I noticed immediately something wrong, the ECM pod nose cone was gone! I hooked up the comm cord and said to the pilot like I always do "How are you doing Sir' did you have a good flight?" The only words out of his mouth were "I almost died, your jet saved me, if you could get me out as fast as you can." So as normal I shut him down, and it wasn't till I got a closer look that I noticed all kinds of things wrong; all of the leading edge tape was gone, the static dischargers broke off, the electronic nose cones of the cluster bombs he was carrying were gone and because it was our squadron jet, all the probes that I had polished were sandblasted… After that we had nothing but problems, a standby generator problem which ended up being the harness through the 341 bulkhead, a FLCS problem which was a harness in the right strake and a few flights later tension strut bushing problems that are still going on to this day."

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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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