F-16 Accidents

Main gear collapsed and a crewmember was injured by the port wing stabilizer. The tail of the aircraft came down and wrecked the ventral fins. Here are the events as described by that crewmember: "There had been changes made to the order in which normal maintenance inspections were performed. Basically our normal way of doing things had been changed. These changes are what allowed this mishap to occur. The evening before I reported for work my swing-shift counterpart found a cracked landing gear handle lense. In the course of fixing the handle someone inadvertently left the handle in the up position. Therefore when the pilot started the jet the main landing gear retracted. I received an L2 compression fracture, a dislocated right ankle, and a broken fibula". This incident happened at Hato, Curaçao. All flying was cancelled for the day. The aircraft was returned to flying status by May 18th, 2001.