Forum: Mishaps

Don't know if this has been on this site before, but thought everyone would enjoy it...

It's a video of an F-18 hitting an A-4 chase plane with a bomb.

Was showed on the History Channel Shockwave series and several other shows. Here is a youtube link carrying the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aLRNQrfIXc

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It's not a bomb

The Navy was testing a break away pylon with a 250 lb Snake Eye filled with cement. Because the A-4 was too close, the fins did not get a chance to open when it fell away. Don't know about the AF, but the Navy now requires the jets be at least 200 feet apart for simular tests.

I stand corrected. I had only ever seen a shorter clip and figured it was a external tank. Nice video.

I was at NAS Patuxent River last year, and came across the photographer that was in the TA-4's rear cockpit. He's still working as a photographer. He told me about the accident, and some of the follow on changes that came about as a result.
I believe he said the pilot went on to make O-6.

I'd remembered seeing this before, and I had thought that the guys made it out. Glad they did. Obviously, this was an accident, but a Thud driver did get a MiG-17 kill in Vietnam in a similar fashion. The MiG was passing under the Thud, when the 105 punched off his centerline MER. The bombs went through the MiG like a knife through butter!

huggy wrote:

I was at NAS Patuxent River last year, and came across the photographer that was in the TA-4's rear cockpit. He's still working as a photographer. He told me about the accident, and some of the follow on changes that came about as a result.
I believe he said the pilot went on to make O-6.

Yep, the photographer, Randy Hepp, is still flying flight test at Pax. The incident happened over Goose Creek and he is still upset that he lost his camera. I think the F-18 involved is one of the aircraft that went to NASA.

Forum: Mishaps

F-18 hits A-4 chase plane with bomb