Forum: F-16 News

The following link from Oberkail Homepage has some extra pictures. Including one of the ejected canopy. SSgt Paul Scott, anyone know him?

http://www.oberkail.de/aktuelles/index_f16.htm

The following is translation of the article. Apologies if I've not got it down to a tee.

A US F-16 crashed at 14.09pm behind the Frohnert Chapel. A number of observers on the ground watched as the pilot ejected and bailed out of the jet. The F-16 continued to fly for about 1 second over the village of 700 inhabitants before crashing into field behind the chapel.

Shortly after that the fire service and personal from Spangdahlem AB arrived at the scene and cordoned it off and began investigations into the cause of the crash. US forces plan to have a press conference on Saturday to release more detail into the incident.

Inhabitants of Oberkail showed concern in regards to emissions after the crash, but have been reassured that there is nothing to worry about.

According to press officer from the base the aircraft had no live weapons aboard and said flying from the base had been suspended. The officer also could not confirm if the F-16 was making a approach to the base, but confirmed US personal arrived at the scene by helicopter.

The pilot after landing was observed to be seen running to Kyllburger road from where US services recovered him and took him away for medical treatment.

At this time the reason for the crash in unclear.

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yeah i work with, hes one of the best crew chiefs we have.

Pilot named in the latest release from USAF

1st Lt. Trevor Merrell, 28, from the 22nd FS at Spangdahlem AB, from Mountain Green, Utah.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123027155

Last edited by busch on Sep 19, 2006 - 11:45 PM; edited 1 time in total

Impacted 2100 meters from my house.
Some say he hit a light on takeoff and damaged the gear. That is strictly a rumor at this point. It did not burn indicating no fuel. Really lucky it did not hit one of the little villages VERY near by!

it was a controlled ejection so i'm sure they had him the least populated safest area.

akruse21 wrote:

it was a controlled ejection so i'm sure they had him the least populated safest area.

Controlled in what way? It was only a few K's from the base and there are lots of places around here to use if you want a "controlled" bailout. I flew from both Spang and Bit and I know the area. Sounds to me like they screwed around till he ran out of gas and had no choice. Just my opinion.

yeah they probably just forgot about the gas situation Bang Head

They arent going to punch him out 30-40 miles from the nearest air force help. Not that hes in enemy territory or anything but we like to help our own. I'm sure he pointed towards the safest direction and gave it a go. Cheers.

akruse21 wrote:

yeah they probably just forgot about the gas situation Bang Head

They arent going to punch him out 30-40 miles from the nearest air force help. Not that hes in enemy territory or anything but we like to help our own. I'm sure he pointed towards the safest direction and gave it a go. Cheers.

Well, there are lots of "our own" in the little villages around here. I saw a small bus full of kindergarten kids (US) just 300 meters from the crash site.

Don't want to get into a furball with you but it was close to a disaster.

tokenblkguy1785 wrote:

not sure if this is 100%, but a friend of mine from spang said it was possibly hydraulics...

He called the IFE for B system Hydraulic failure. From what I understand they had him go high key, and assessed what to do to fix the problem. Then once out of gas, had him abort.

As to why that location, couldn't speculate.

Paul is a pretty good crewchief.

V/R
ID

akruse21 wrote:

anyone know what would call for no attempted landing?

Darn good question. Anyone got an answer?

One main landing gear up, one down. Also, if you had one (or both down) without a safe indication, indicating that they weren't fully down.

Basically, your only truly landable configurations are: All three down and locked, Both mains down and locked with the nosegear up or unsafe, or all three up.

If you can't get to one of those three configurations, your best bet is to punch out.

Last edited by Michael_HHN on Sep 16, 2006 - 10:16 PM; edited 1 time in total

Hi.
Very sad thing, glad the pilot made it and no other people were injured.
Been to the crash site today.

You are all asking why did the a/c crash at this location?
At first, yes this was a controlled crash.
You should read the Spangdahlem AB Manual for Airfield Operations.
It's available on the internet, nothing classified.
Get the GPS coordinates as mentioned in 8.4.1.1. and 8.4.1.2. and use f.e.
Google Earth to locate these points. You will see that this was actually a "perfect crash".
Here's the original excerp out of the manual:

Quote:

8.4. Controlled Bailout Area.
8.4.1. Ejection:
8.4.1.1. Bailout Point: SPA TACAN 322 R/3.5 DME (N5001.5 E00638.4).
8.4.1.2. Initial Point: SPA TACAN 298 R/3.3 DME (N5000.307 E00637.7).
8.4.1.3. Heading: 030 degrees.
8.4.1.4. Altitude: above 3200’ MSL, MSA (minimum safe altitude) 4300’ MSL.
8.4.1.5. Airspeed: lowest practical airspeed.
8.4.2. Aircraft procedures:
8.4.2.1. VMC: Attempt to eject just past the autobahn over the farmer’s field and prior to the
heavily wooded area.
8.4.2.2. IMC: Contact Spangdahlem GCA (CH10) for vectors to initial point at which point the
pilot will resume own navigation on a 030-degree heading to the bailout point.
....

Now most of the questions about the location should be clear. This is a designated bailout area for Spangdahlem. The bad thing is that these "spots" were never told to the local people living in this area!
Today there was a official Press-Conference and they said, *edit* during a flight manouver the aircraft hit an antenna on base..... Is that true?
Heard the landing light version also.
German Television just showed the Interview with Col. Robertson.
Most of the Hydrazin was burned during the crash was also mentioned.

Greetings
Michael

wow good info buddy. thanks

Michael_HHN wrote:

clip
Now most of the questions about the location should be clear. This is a designated bailout area for Spangdahlem. The bad thing is that these "spots" were never told to the local people living in this area!
clip
You will see that this was actually a "perfect crash"
clip
Michael

Perhaps the base needs to update their data to include the rather large bio gas plant and tanks that were 400 meters from the crash site!

Also, any crash that just misses a village of 700+ people is far from perfect IMHO! I'm sure the folks in Oberkail are very happy to know that their village has been hand picked as the target area!

For a quicky bailout area, maybe, but not in a case like this. Baumholder would have been 99.9% safe for everyone.

My 2 Euro worth. YMMV.

Forum: F-16 News

One of ours (Spangdahlem) down - Pilot ok