Fighter Jet News

F-16 Fighting Falcon News

Smoke forces USAF F-16 to make emergency landing

November 17, 2006 (by Lieven Dewitte) - Two U.S. F-16Ds of the 13th Fighter Squadron made an emergency landing at a Japanese airport Friday morning after one of them developed smoke in the cockpit, Japanese defense officials said.

USAF F-16C block 50 #92-3897 from the 13th FS takes off for an air combat mission from Misawa AFB on July 28th, 1995. [USAF photo by SRA Steve Thurow]

The F-16s (#91-0471 and #91-0477 or #91-0462) took off from Misawa AB at around 09.00h for a training flight over the Tsugaru Strait. At 09.56h one of the pilots contacted ATC and reported smoke in his cockpit.

A few moments later both jets made an emergency landing at Hakodate Airport, located 10km east of central Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

It was a minor problem and although the smoke went away the pilots still diverted as a precautionary measure.

The pilots were OK and no civilian flights were affected, according to the officials.

The cause of the smoke was not immediately known.

On Wednesday, a practice bomb fell off an F-16 aircraft assigned to the 13th Fighter Squadron during a routine training mission.