IDFAF F-16 crashes in Southern Hebron

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by Mac1 » 13 Sep 2009, 17:30

Danish newspaper claim that an Israeli F16 crashed on sunday, killing the pilot.

http://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/krigogka ... 221448.ece

Google Translate:
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... ry_state0=

R.I.P


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by Asif » 13 Sep 2009, 17:54

Lt. Assaf Ramon
Attachments
NMA_0886s_cropped_big.jpg
Lt. Assaf Ramon's pilot's training course graduation ceremony. [Photo: IDF]
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by Gamera » 13 Sep 2009, 18:09

R.I.P.

] The pilot Lt. Assaf Ramon, 20, was on his 47th training flight since completing his pilot training in June 2009.

IMO, 20 years old sounds a bit young to be flying solo in a F-16?
Or, does the IDFAF have a compressed pilot training programme?

For instance, 20 is the legal drinking age in Japan?

BTW, he's posthumously promoted to Captain.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 47,00.html

"Assaf Ramon promoted to rank of captain"

Published: 09.13.09, 19:33 / Israel News


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by Asif » 13 Sep 2009, 18:31

BBC News wrote:Jet crash kills Israel hero's son
Page last updated at 16:36 GMT, Sunday, 13 September 2009 17:36 UK

An Israeli F-16 fighter jet has crashed in the West Bank, killing the pilot.

The 21-year-old pilot, Assaf Ramon, was the son of Israel's only astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Sunday's crash took place in a hilly area south of the city of Hebron, military officials said.

The jet was on a routine training flight, they added. There is no word on why it went down. Search and rescue crews are at the scene.

Ilan Ramon - who was a former fighter pilot himself - is regarded as a national hero in Israel, and media broke into their normal broadcasts to report his son's death.

An unidentified Palestinian told Israeli TV that the plane had flown low over the southern West Bank before crashing.

"There was a huge fire," the eyewitness said.

Lt Assaf Ramon graduated from the Israeli air force pilot's course earlier this year.

The military statement said he had excelled in his training course, and had been given his wings by President Shimon Peres.

The Columbia disaster occurred on 1 February 2003.

The space shuttle disintegrated during re-entry over the US state of Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 253465.stm
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by AfterburnerDecalsScott » 13 Sep 2009, 18:49

Gamera wrote:R.I.P.

] The pilot Lt. Assaf Ramon, 20, was on his 47th training flight since completing his pilot training in June 2009.

IMO, 20 years old sounds a bit young to be flying solo in a F-16?
Or, does the IDFAF have a compressed pilot training programme?

For instance, 20 is the legal drinking age in Japan?

BTW, he's posthumously promoted to Captain.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 47,00.html

"Assaf Ramon promoted to rank of captain"

Published: 09.13.09, 19:33 / Israel News



I don't think their pilot selection is typical of at least most Western countries. They don't place emphasis on formal college education. I believe they identify talent early and start training early.
More people have died driving with Ted Kennedy than hunting with Dick Cheney.


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by Gamera » 13 Sep 2009, 19:10

] IMO, 20 years old sounds a bit young to be flying solo in a F-16?

Actually, I meant flying a single-seater, instead of flying solo. I don't know whether he had any wingman.

] The Columbia disaster occurred on 1 February 2003.

IIRC, 1 February 2003 was Chinese New Year Day in 2003.
2003 was the Year of SARS, but we were in holiday mood, when the Columbia accident appeared in radio and TV news.


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by runi_dk » 13 Sep 2009, 19:35

An article about Assaf made three years ago. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 80,00.html

20 or 21 is quite young for a F-16 pilot, anyone knows how it is possible?

Sad that he didn't make it to space.


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by tmofarrvl » 13 Sep 2009, 19:59

runi_dk wrote:20 or 21 is quite young for a F-16 pilot, anyone knows how it is possible?


Israeli men enter the armed forces when they turn 18 and graduate from high school. Top recruits are selected almost immediately for training in either special forces or for pilot training. College is something that comes after they have served their mandatory service.


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by Asif » 13 Sep 2009, 23:11

Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote:Ilan Ramon’s son killed in F-16 crash
September 13, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The son of the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon was killed in the crash of an Israeli Air Force fighter plane.

Capt. Assaf Ramon, 20, died Sunday while flying the F-16 aircraft as part of advanced training. He had completed the training course for pilots with honors in June, receiving his wings from President Shimon Peres. He had escaped death in a training flight in March.

His father, Israel's first astronaut, was killed aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in 2003 when it broke apart upon its return to earth.

The Air Force ordered all F-16 training halted until further notice. The plane crashed in the Hebron Hills.

Ilan Ramon himself was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and participated in the 1981 strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

Assaf Ramon, the oldest of four children, was 15 when his father died. He had said he would like to become a pilot like his father and perhaps even an astronaut.

source: http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/13/ ... f-16-crash


AFP wrote:Columbia astronaut's son dies in F-16 crash in West Bank
By Gavin Rabinowitz (AFP) – 6 hours ago

JERUSALEM — An F-16 fighter plane crash in the West Bank on Sunday killed its pilot, uniting Israel in grief for the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.

The single-seat warplane crashed in a remote hilly region south of the city of Hebron, the military said, adding that it was not immediately clear what had caused the accident.

Military officials named the pilot as Lieutenant Assaf Ramon, 21, the eldest son of Colonel Ilan Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot who became the Jewish state's first and only astronaut.

News of the crash rocked the Jewish state, where Ilan Ramon is regarded as a national hero.

"Today, we are plunged into grief... Assaf Ramon has died the same way as his father. It's a terrible tragedy which has struck all the people of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Dozens of senior officers and family friends gathered outside the family home at Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. Among those presenting condolences were chief of staff General Gaby Ashkenazi and air force chief General Ido Neshustan.

"We all stand side by side with the Ramon family," Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

A military spokeswoman said an inquiry had been launched and that all of the air force's F-16s were grounded until further notice. Air and ground forces were mobilised for several hours after the crash to recover debris.

Astronaut Ilan Ramon was killed along with six others when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over the US state of Texas on February 1, 2003.

The son of a Holocaust survivor, Ramon was already famous in his homeland for taking part in the 1981 air raid that destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.

On June 7 that year, eight US-made F-16s with an escort of six F-15s flew undetected over Arab territory to launch the surprise attack on the French-built reactor.

In 1997, Ilan Ramon was selected by NASA to train in the United States as Israel's first man in space as a payload specialist aboard Columbia.

One of his tasks on board was to use a special camera supplied by the Israel Space Agency (ISA) to photograph sandstorms in the Middle East for analysis into their link to global warming.

In interviews after the Columbia disaster in which his father died, Assaf Ramon said that he too hoped to one day become an astronaut. He graduated as an Israeli air force pilot earlier this year.

State television and radio dedicated special broadcasts to Sunday's tragedy, showing video footage of Assaf Ramon receiving his wings from President Shimon Peres.

Ramon, who had since flown around 50 sorties, was promoted posthumously from lieutenant to captain, the military spokeswoman said, adding that the date of his funeral will be announced later.

The military said Ramon's aircraft crashed during a routine flight as part of the advanced pilot training course.

Witnesses said debris from his plane was spread across a wide swathe of the sparsely populated region.

"I saw a huge ball of fire and after that black smoke," Michal Weiss, from the nearby Jewish settlement of Pene Hever, told public radio.


source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... wdIlEDlRjA
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by sextusempiricus » 13 Sep 2009, 23:37

Oh, man, this is horrible. Poor, poor family. I cannot imagine - actually, I can - the grief his mother must be feeling. First her husband, then her son. How terrible, terrible...


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by Gamera » 14 Sep 2009, 07:32

] First her husband, then her son.

Coincidentally, back in July 2009, at the ROKAF Academy, two ROKAF father and son were immortalised as statues.
The father bought the farm in a F-4, in the '80s. The son bought the farm in a KF-16, a year or two ago.

See
http://www.f-16.net/index.php?name=PNph ... 270#157270
for links to news photos, before the links expire.

Maybe someone will suggest to the IDFAF or Israeli newspapers to emulate this remembrance?


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by Asif » 14 Sep 2009, 08:35

haaretz.com wrote:Probe of Asaf Ramon crash to focus on human factor

By Amos Harel and Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondents
Last update - 09:40 14/09/2009

Israel Air Force Capt. Asaf Ramon, 21, was killed Sunday when the F-16A Falcon jet he was flying crashed during a routine training flight near the southern Hebron Hills.

Ramon is the son of Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, who died during the disastrous Earth reentry of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. Like his son, Col. Ramon was an F-16 pilot.

Ramon will be laid to rest next to his father at Kibbutz Nahalal on Monday.

Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan ordered an official inquiry and an immediate halt to all F-16 training flights until further notice, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Col. Ilan Boger, a fighter pilot and former commander of the base at Ramat David, was appointed head of the committee of inquiry.

There was no immediate comment on the cause of the crash. However, the main focus of the investigation is on human factors, and there is a high probability that some physiological problem may have led to the crash.

Ramon took off from the Nevatim air base at 1 P.M. on a routine training flight in a single-seat Falcon as part of the advanced flight training course that the pilot began in July. The formation was led by A., a veteran pilot, and was meant to exercise at an altitude of 18,000 feet over the Hebron Hills and the West Bank.

The two aircraft were to simulate dogfighting. The training was fairly basic, as this was a somewhat early stage of Ramon's fighter pilot training. The two aircraft were supposed to pass each other, and then perform a fairly wide turn in order to continue the exercise.

A. was supposed to see Ramon several seconds after the two aircraft had passed each other, but quickly realized that he could not find him. He called him on the radio: "Watch your altitude," but there was no response.

The incident occurred at about 1:30 P.M., when Ramon's aircraft disappeared off radar. Several minutes later reports began coming in from people living in the area south of Hebron that an aircraft had been seen flying at low altitude over the Hebron-Be'er Sheva highway, and of an explosion, followed by a cloud of smoke.

The lead pilot reported that he had lost eye contact with Ramon's aircraft. Quickly, other jets arrived at the scene, along with helicopters, looking for the Ramon's plane.

The search and rescue operation commenced nearly immediately, initially with IDF ground forces in the area and civilians from nearby. IDF helicopters were also dispatched. Meanwhile, the other pilot in the formation began making low passes in an effort to identify the precise location of the crash.

The mountainous terrain made it difficult to find the location of the crash. A crater that had been carved by the downed plane was located some 90 minutes after the incident.

An IDF officer who was one of the first on the scene said that "all that was left was a big, burned out crater, with very little debris."

The remains of the aircraft were spread over a wide area and the IDF brought hundreds of soldiers who began combing the mountains for debris. Ramon's remains were found not far from the crater. He had not been able to eject from the aircraft before the crash.

Ramon's aircraft began falling when it was at 18,000 feet. When it was last seen, the jet had its nose slightly downward. Based on its speed and altitude at the time, the plane likely struck the ground with enormous force within 20-45 seconds from when it began to fall.

Ramon had managed to complete 47 flights as part of his advanced training program, and 15 of those included simulated basic dogfight training. The type of training that this particular flight involved was not extreme, but it was done at nearly 720 km/h (400 knots) which is about the maximum allowable speed.

Pilots perform this sort of exercise while keeping sufficient distance and height between the aircraft in order to avoid flying into each other.

Ramon had completed pilot training three months ago and was named best cadet in his class. At an advanced stage of his training, when he flew an A-4 Skyhawk as part of the fighter-aircraft training, the engine stalled and Ramon successfully restarted the engine by carrying emergency procedures. He landed that aircraft safely.

President Shimon Peres awarded Ramon his wings at his graduation ceremony in July.

Nehushtan, and Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, chief of personnel at the IAF, arrived at the Ramon home in Ramat Gan Sunday to deliver the news to Asaf's mother, Rona. Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi all issued a messages of condolence to the family.

As is customary, Asaf Ramon was promoted to the rank of captain posthumously.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1114355.html
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by JoeSambor » 14 Sep 2009, 11:20

On the highway from Be'er Sheva to Tel Aviv, there is a small diner/sandwich shop that most of the IAF stops in at from time to time whenever their business takes them in the area. On one wall is a photo tribute to Ilan Ramon, with various photographs from his career including one showing him suited up for his Shuttle mission. Patrons of the diner view this area as a shrine to one of Israel's greatest heroes.

Sadly, it looks like his a photo of his son will soon be added to this wall. My sympathies go out to Rona Ramon, who has lost not one but two members of her family. To quote President Abraham Lincoln's famous "Bixby Letter":

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

Best Regards,
Joe Sambor
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Woensdrecht Logistics Center, The Netherlands


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by phil » 14 Sep 2009, 17:30

Very sad news. Some families have strange destinies...
The Ramon's have always been heroes, thinking back already on Ilan's raid on Osirak.
The death of this very young pilot is a great loss.


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by That_Engine_Guy » 15 Sep 2009, 01:53

May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed. May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your days, and in the lifetimes of the entire family of Israel, swiftly and soon. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.

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