Norwegian F-16 landing accident Jan 2014

julenissen · by **julenissen** » 02 Jan 2014, 20:44

http://www.nrk.no/nordland/f16-fly-ble- ... 1.11446305 (In norwegian)

Aircraft performing touch and go training, when noseweel leg broke.
Pilot ok.

Robert

zaltys · by **zaltys** » 03 Jan 2014, 17:06

Looks like not too much damage.

Did they really perform touch-and-goes? Such things are rare nowadays.

julenissen · by **julenissen** » 03 Jan 2014, 21:53

According to this news-article they did so.

http://www.nrk.no/nordland/kan-vaere-fo ... 1.11449209

Pictures, video (in Norwegian)

The aircraft is maybe so damaged, that it is a possible w/o. This because its age, and the anticipation
of new aircraft (F-35).

Robert

JoeSambor · by **JoeSambor** » 04 Jan 2014, 21:37

It doesn't look that bad to me, but of course I am limited by the views provided by the photos and video. But the intake looks okay (usually the busted nose landing gear pops through the intake, causing lots of damage) and I'm betting the Sniper pod took some damage as well.

Best Regards,

labrador · by **labrador** » 04 Jan 2014, 23:00

The jet 78-0285 landed short of the approach end arresting wire. According to an eyewitness report on Facebook (probably from some distance) the nose landing gear was caught by the arresting wire, forcing the jet to a sudden deceleration. The spring effect in the wire then forced the aircraft backwards, while sparks could be seen coming from the nose landing gear area. The pilot egressed from the jet shortly thereafter.

One question arises (apart from why did the pilot land short of the runway), is why did the jet not roll over the wire.

johnwill · by **johnwill** » 05 Jan 2014, 04:19

The report says there was a four ship touch and go operation. I have no way of knowing, but it is possible that another airplane just ahead of the damaged airplane rolled over the wire, causing it to bounce up high enough to engage the nose gear. The approach end wire is not located at the end of the runway, but is about 1300 ft from the end. So touching down before passing over the wire is not unusual.

zaltys · by **zaltys** » 05 Jan 2014, 11:57

From what I have seen fighters almost always land before cable. Apparently it's not a problem to them. If there were formation landings with touchdown before cable, then labrador's explanation works well. Especially if cable's tension was reduced somehow. But formation landing doesn't suite touch-and-goes.

Lieven · by **Lieven** » 05 Jan 2014, 14:33

We've put up an article about it now: http://www.f-16.net/news_article4815.html

julenissen · by **julenissen** » 06 Jan 2014, 17:10

A small update: http://www.nrk.no/nordland/ulykkesfly-s ... 1.11452298

The airforce was going to retire the airframe, later this year.
So I guess that repairing it would be wasting money. They say that there will be few consequences to training and operations.

Robert

zaltys · by **zaltys** » 07 Jan 2014, 13:16

Any chance for short translation?

julenissen · by **julenissen** » 07 Jan 2014, 23:07

The article Livien wrote, covers the most of it. And the rest is coverd short in my last post.

Robert

johnwill · by **johnwill** » 07 Jan 2014, 23:11

Looking a little closer, you can see some damage to both ventral fins. I'm wondering if the airplane landed a little slow, high AoA, high sink rate, and the nose gear failed when it hit the runway. All this before encountering the wire, so the wire snagged the failed gear or an inlet-mounted pod. Also note the flaps are up and the speedbrake retracted. Is that normal after stopping?

mor10 · by **mor10** » 07 Jan 2014, 23:50

johnwill wrote:Looking a little closer, you can see some damage to both ventral fins. I'm wondering if the airplane landed a little slow, high AoA, high sink rate, and the nose gear failed when it hit the runway. All this before encountering the wire, so the wire snagged the failed gear or an inlet-mounted pod. Also note the flaps are up and the speedbrake retracted. Is that normal after stopping?

Unless things have changed the trailing edge flaps are permanent down when gear is down. Speed break I believe is pilot controlled.

NicodeHaan · by **NicodeHaan** » 08 Jan 2014, 00:24

JoeSambor wrote:It doesn't look that bad to me, but of course I am limited by the views provided by the photos and video. But the intake looks okay (usually the busted nose landing gear pops through the intake, causing lots of damage) and I'm betting the Sniper pod took some damage as well.

Best Regards,

Joe, I think you are right about this. It looks like the Pod protected the bird for more damage. The situation is a little similar to the mishap we had at Leeuwarden with the J-516. But as long as the NLG did not collapsed entiarly it should not be that bad.
And for the position of the FLC surfaces and speedbrakes as mentioned in another reaction on this post, I think they have already put the surfaces in the neutral position manually. It is not a situation you find after a mishap.

jacarlsen · by **jacarlsen** » 09 Jan 2014, 11:04

Some third hand info. The pilot landed short, causing the ventral fins to scratch the ground and the arresting hook to come down. The pilot tried to take off again, but the nose gear grabed the arresting wire and the aircraft came to a halt. The vhf antenna under the inlet is undamaged, but the inlet strut is bent. Haven't seen it my self, only heard. Anybody got more accurate info?