F-16 Fighting Falcon News

April 9, 2000 (by Lieven Dewitte) - Official RoCAF report concludes that the F-16 crash on August 18th 1999, was caused by malfunction of the engine nozzle control section. While the aircraft was going around, the nozzle was placed at full open position and led to insufficient thrust. After inspecting the subsystem on all remaining aircraft, the Chief of Staff ordered that the fleet will resume flying.
The accident was caused by the manufacturer while testing the nozzle control section on a test stand. Because of improper installation of servos, a "hard damage" resulted, causing the computer to open the nozzle fully based on erroneous signal and thus leading to insufficient thrust.

The thrust developed after the malfunction was only around 3, 300 lb and the minimum required in that situation was 3, 800 lb. The pilot could not obtain sufficient thrust even at full afterburner because the control computer refused to accept the command.