F-16 Accidents

Two F-16s (#87-0389 and #87-0270) were doing a formation take-off from Wright-Patterson AFB. At lift off, the lead aircraft (87-0270) pitched nose down. The aircraft did not respond to nose up commands by the pilot so Capt. Anthony Zaccaro ejected successfully. The plane came down in the grass off the left side of the runway. During the slide, the gear struts failed, fuel cells ruptured and a big fire trailed and engulfed the aircraft when it stopped. After that the second aircraft pitched nose down and blew the nose tire braking the nose strut. In this condition the aircraft was unflyable. It was tracking straight down the runway and responded to brake pressure so Lt. Mark Bortiatynski completed an abort and successfully egressed after sliding to a stop. When this aircraft hit the runway, the centerline fuel tank split and the fuel was ignited which left a large trailing fireball.