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Probe leans toward likelihood Asaf Ramon blacked out before crash
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

The findings of the committee investigating the crash of the F-16 in which Captain Asaf Ramon was killed last week are not yet conclusive. The investigators are so far increasingly convinced the crash did not result from a technical problem with the aircraft and are inclined to focus on the "human factor." One hypothesis is that Ramon may have lost consciousness during a particularly difficult maneuver that may have exerted as much as nine times the force of gravity on his body, causing him to lose control of the aircraft.

If this turns out to be the conclusion of the panel - a final conclusion may not be possible because of the enormous damage done to the aircraft during the crash - Ramon will not be the first Israeli pilot to have lost consciousness in similar circumstances. The Israel Air Force experienced many such instances, especially during the 1980s, which led to a change in the regulations.

During the 1990s, Col. (res.) Yigal Shohat, a physician and a fighter pilot, served as the chief medical officer in the IAF. Earlier he had been in the U.S. for studies and research. His American colleagues shared with him their findings on a new phenomenon they had noticed: The new fighters, especially the F-16, posed a new challenge to the pilots. The F-16 is capable of achieving a particularly high "G" (force of gravity), at exceptionally high speeds, sometimes as fast as a second and a half after a maneuver is carried out.

More and more American F-16 pilots reported they lost consciousness, and sometimes temporarily lost their sight, as a result of a high-G maneuver. The U.S. Air Force investigated the reported cases and concluded that the pilots needed to undergo special training before flying the F-16 to avoid the phenomena during dogfight practice.

The biggest change was the use of centrifuges: a large metal bar turns the pilot at high speeds and assimilates him to the high levels of G-forces that the body experiences during aggressive maneuvering. Recordings of the exercise showed many pilots losing consciousness; some regained function within 12-20 seconds, but others needed 30 seconds. The Americans called the phenomenon G-loc (which stands for loss of consciousness as a result of high G-forces).

Shohat came back to Israel and wanted to apply the same training to air force pilots here, except that many commanders were not too eager to invest the time and resources for it until there was a near accident in which a pilot lost consciousness at 24,000 feet and managed to regain control at 6,000 feet, bringing his F-16 safely to base.

"The first thing I did was to get the recording of the flight, and then I went on a public relations campaign through the air force," Shohat says. The commanders were convinced and the first group of pilots went to Germany to undergo training in the centrifuge. Later training included locations in the Netherlands and the U.S., before pilots were allowed to fly the F-16 and F-15.

Subsequently there have been significant changes made, and now a pilot who moves on to advanced training goes immediately to fly the F-16A Falcon.

The investigation suggests Ramon had not had a chance to undergo training in the centrifuge, as this is left for a later training stage. A possible result of the investigation is that the regulations will be altered again, and the centrifuge training will be moved up, before pilots are allowed into the advanced aircraft.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115736.html