USAF F-16A block 15 #83-1116 from the 308th TFS is parked on a large ramp together with a sistership. The aircraft crashed on January 5th, 1989 after only serving for a mere 4 years. [Photo by Mike Kopack]
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on 2006-Jun-06 17:30:41 Anonymous said 83-1116
The airplane crashed on January 4th, 1989. This was my airplane. It was being flown by Lt Mark Pugh on a surface attack/tactics mission. He was #4 in the formation. While egressing the target area at ~515 knots, his canopy struck an approximately 8-pound turkey buzzard directly in front of the HUD. The bird's remains penetrated the canopy (this was the first USAF penetration of an F-16 canopy) and hit Pugsly in the chest, knocking his left hand onto the ejection handle and his right arm off the sidestick back against the bulkhead. He could only see a small gap near his left hand on the ejection handle, and that seemed like a good idea, so he ejected. The airplane continued and crashed off-range, killing a cow. Pugsly's injuries were confined to bruises and lacerations from the canopy plexiglass--he flew again in several weeks and continued as an F-16 LANTIRN and F-15E RTU IP. I still have the canopy rail from the airplane in my office.
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News: USAF F-16 crashes near lake, pilot ejects safely [1989-01-05]
A U.S. Air Force F-16 crashed in a cow pasture north of Lake Okeechobee located in south-central Florida, yesterday. The pilot manged to safely eject and only suffered some bruises.
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