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F-16 Fighting Falcon News

Air Force reserve F-16C down in Texas

August 28, 2000 (by Lieven Dewitte) - An Air Force reservist was killed Monday after the F-16C he piloted crashed into a Texas Panhandle field.
The single-seat jet (#85-1456) went down about 6 p.m. CDT near the town of Tulia, about 70 miles north of Lubbock in the Panhandle area of Texas.

The F-16 was part of an Air Force reserve unit, the 457th Fighter Squadron, stationed at Naval Air Station Fort Worth.

Pilot Stephen Simons, 41, of Fort Worth was killed. He was returning to Fort Worth from Hill Air Force Base, near Ogden, Utah, on a training mission.

There was no immediate word on the exact cause of the crash but according to witnesses, the jet clipped a nearby barn before it went down in a plowed field. The downed F-16 scattered debris for about a quarter of a mile. The jet was not carrying any bombs or any live munitions but only dummy missile as part of the training mission.