November 17, 2006 (by Lieven Dewitte) -
Two U.S. F-16Ds of the 13th Fighter Squadron made an emergency landing at a Japanese airport Friday morning after one of them developed smoke in the cockpit, Japanese defense officials said.
USAF F-16C block 50 #92-3897 from the 13th FS takes off for an air combat mission from Misawa AFB on July 28th, 1995.
The F-16s (
#91-0471 and
#91-0477 or
#91-0462) took off from Misawa AB at around 09.00h for a training flight over the Tsugaru Strait. At 09.56h one of the pilots contacted
ATC and reported smoke in his cockpit.
A few moments later both jets made an emergency landing at Hakodate Airport, located 10km east of central Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.
It was a minor problem and although the smoke went away the pilots still diverted as a precautionary measure.
The pilots were OK and no civilian flights were affected, according to the officials.
The cause of the smoke was not immediately known.
On Wednesday, a practice bomb fell off an F-16 aircraft assigned to the 13th Fighter Squadron during a routine training mission.
