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F-16 Aircraft Database

F-16 Accident Reports for 1980

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Found 8 aircraft, displaying advertising.html- 8 [Sorted by Date]
Date Status Local S/N Aircraft AF/Unit Version Info Details
Unknown [ act] 78001 78- 0001 USAF 34 TFS F-16A Block 1 Details
Suffered a mishap on landing. The nose gear would not come down. The pilot tried everything to get it down, no luck. It was decided he would land on the runway and keep his nose up as long as he could. There was some concern the external wing tanks would drag so of course the crash trucks were there in case of fire. The pilot brought the plane in very slowly and landed on the mains, kept the nose up and almost came to a stop before the nose dropped. The radome was of course scraped up, the ring around the intake and the lower tacan antenna was gone. The wing tanks were about 5-6 inches from the ground. It was found out the seals in the nose gear were almost totally deteriorated. It was the original nose gear from the factory. Everything that was damaged was replaced and the plane was flying three days later. Anyone who knows the exact date, please let us know.

Update: A visitor wonders if this was the mishap involving pilot Dick Hoover who could not get the nose gear down at a Red Flag exercise, but also was not sure about the exact date.

10 Mar 1980 [ w/o] J-216 78- 0216 RNlAF TCA F-16A Block 1 Details
First foreign F-16 loss. Fatal crash in Ijsselmeer, near Stavoren in the Netherlands. The aircraft was practising on the Vliehors range and testing the Orpheus pod. The pilot, Captain E.J.L. Kropman, was killed.
26 Mar 1980 [ w/o] 78023 78- 0023 USAF 57 FWW F-16A Block 5 Details
Destroyed in a fire due to an engine failure that sent some turbine parts through the main fuel cells. The pilot, D.W. Bell, was from the Operational, Test & Evaluation squadron but using 388th TFW aircraft ejected safely after trying to restart the engine. The fact that the aircraft did not blow up was a relief to some early pilots as they were not convinced that the new designed fuel cells would perform as advertised. The fuel cells are sealed partitions in the fuselage. However, the major concern was about the fly by wire flight control system and what happened if the power was totally lost if the flight controls went "stupid". It was well understood that loss of flight controls could cause 20 Gs in less than a quarter of a second.
25 Jun 1980 [ w/o] 78071 78- 0071 USAF 4 TFS F-16A Block 5 Details
The aircraft was lost in a yellow flag exercise caused by fuel starvation. The pilot bailed out at approximately 300 ft when a flame-out approach to a dirt road didn't turn out to be the best solution.
23 Jul 1980 [ w/o] 78092 78- 0092 USAF 388 TFW F-16B Block 1 Details
Impacted the ground on the Eagle range, Utah. The crew, Capt. Don Stuart and Capt. Larry Danner, ejected safely and were uninjured. During the second low angle bomb pass on the Eagle Range target, the engine stagnated when the throttle was advanced from idle following bomb release. Airspeed was traded for altitude, but both the primary and backup control airstart attempts were unsuccessful and they bailed out at about 1500 feet. The subsequent investigation revealed an alignment pin was missing from a critical valve in the engine compressor variable geometry system which precluded restart.
28 Jul 1980 [ i/a] FA-08 78- 0123 BAF 349 sqn F-16A Block 1 Details
After a flame-out the pilot managed to restart the engine, but crashed nevertheless near Obaix-Buzet, Belgium. The wreck was later used at Florennes for BDRT. Captain Henri Malaise ejected
Oct 1980 [ act] 75747 75- 0747 F-16A Details
The aircraft crash landed on Rogers dry lake bed at Edwards AFB due to a blown nose gear tire on take off during the annual open house air show. It was shipped to General Dynamics Fort Worth in a C-5 and rebuilt into the first F-16XL, flying back to Edwards one year later on December 2nd, 1981. The pilot survived unharmed but very shaken.
29 Oct 1980 [ w/o] 78110 78- 0110 USAF 61 TFTS F-16B Block 5 Details
Destroyed when it hit the ground at Avon Park range, Florida.



Abbreviations and symbols:
[act] Active [i/a] Instructional Airframe [sto] Stored (e.g. at AMARG)
[cld] Cancelled Order [msh] Involved in Mishap [w/o] Write-off
[con] Converted [o/o] On Order
[des] Destroyed (drone) [pre] Preserved (museum, gateguard) T/V LM Aero Type/Version (Construction) number
[emb] Embargoed [scr] Scrapped Photo Available
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