Learjet collides with Eurofighter Typhoon/Fire breaks out on F-35A

Two significant events, completely unrelated today in military aviation.

Few details have been released yet, but a Bombardier Learjet (appears to be a Lear 31, registered as D-CGFK) with a crew of two has crashed into a field near Olsberg Germany, after colliding with a Luftwaffe Typhoon. The Learjet was owned by GFD, which shows as owning a single Learjet. The Typhoon landed safely with no injuries.

Also today, an F-35A at Eglin AFB aborted take-off after fire broke out in the aft fuselage. The pilot reported an emergency at 0915 local time, and egressed the aircraft safely. The fire was put out quickly by base firefighters. There are 49 F-35s of all three types at Eglin. This marks the second major fire to break out in the fuselage of an F-35. The first was in 2011, when a valve for the Integrated Power Package failed. The fleet was grounded for several weeks after that incident.

This fire happens two weeks before three F-35Bs are to deploy in their first overseas deployment to the UK.

A Lockheed Martin F-35A was damaged on 23 June after a fire erupted in the aft section of the fuselage during a take-off attempt from Eglin AFB, Florida, says a base spokeswoman.

The pilot aborted the take-off attempt due to the fire and exited the aircraft without injury, she says. Further details have not been released.

Emergency crews responded to the ground emergency reported at 09:15 and extinguished the fire with foam, the spokeswoman says.

www.flightglobal.com...

A German air force Eurofighter collided with a Bombardier Learjet operated by GFD over Olsberg, North-Rhine Westphalia in Germany on 23 June.

The Learjet crashed in open countryside with a crew of two on board. The fighter landed safely, with no injuries to its crew.

www.flightglobal.com...

The Learjet and the Typhoon were both taking part in an exercise at the time of the collision. The wreckage of the Lear are spread over a wide area, and one pilot's remains have been found. The other is still missing. The Typhoon suffered major damage, and it has been reported that the crew was lucky to be able to land it safely.

This article mentions that the Learjet was placing air targets serving as practice targets for the Eurofighter.

Seems like a very dangerous job to me.

According to the article, two Eurofighters and the Learjet were taking part in a joint exercise between the Luftwaffe and the Gesellschaft für Flugzieldarstellung (GFD), a subsiduary of Airbus Defence and Space. The Learjet was a civilian aircraft.

Lear Jet Crashed after Collision with Eurofighter

a reply to: Murgatroid

There used to be a company in the US, Phoenix Air that flew Learjets towing targets for the military. I don't know if they're still operating, but they had some wild stories to tell. They lost a jet in Taiwan, I think it was, during a Shootex. The fighter fired a missile, and instead of tracking the target, it tracked the cable attaching it to the plane, and hit the Lear instead. There are surprisingly few incidents like that, but the problem is that when they DO happen, there's no way for the crew to get out.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Doesn't bode well for an England F35 show.

Condolences go out to the Lear jet pilots as well.

a reply to: Sammamishman

First thing I thought of when I read that article. Almost certainly will result in another grounding, and since all three use the same engine, it'll ground all three of them, unless it can be shown to be a one off incident, specific to this particular aircraft.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Sammamishman

since all three use the same engine.

Actually, the Lear 31 uses the Garrett TFE-731 fan, theTyphoon uses a proprietary Eurojet EJ-200, and the F-35 uses the Pratt F-135. They are all fanjets but vary considerably in compressor stages and turbine sections. And of the 3, the Garrett is not an afterburning (or "reheated") engine.

a reply to: F4guy

He meant all three of the F-35 variants

This from the BBC, It seems there are no survivors from the Learjet.

www.bbc.co.uk...

It is pretty close to where I live, somehow I still feel that there is something wrong about the official story.
I know the reports of several witnesses, that the debries are all over the place.
I am not an expert, but when the 2 planes collide in a way that the Eurofighter could safely fly home, why is the other plane so destroyed, that the whole valley is full of debries?
Please correct me, I am really interested in that, since it is, like I said, really close.

Btw. so far they have only found bodyparts of one passenger of the Learjet, the other one is still missing.
Another strange part is, that they can't hand out information about where the Learjet took of, they said they don't know.
Strange if you consider that he was involved in the exercise and they should have this information.

www.theguardian.com...

I think that unless I am mistaken a euro fighter also crashed in Spain this month, with loss of life. Not great advertising it seems.

Note particularly the comment that beyond 2018 they may discontinue production... Lol

Added link

originally posted by: aLLeKs
It is pretty close to where I live, somehow I still feel that there is something wrong about the official story.
I know the reports of several witnesses, that the debries are all over the place.
I am not an expert, but when the 2 planes collide in a way that the Eurofighter could safely fly home, why is the other plane so destroyed, that the whole valley is full of debries?
Please correct me, I am really interested in that, since it is, like I said, really close.

Btw. so far they have only found bodyparts of one passenger of the Learjet, the other one is still missing.
Another strange part is, that they can't hand out information about where the Learjet took of, they said they don't know.
Strange if you consider that he was involved in the exercise and they should have this information.

The Learjet crashed into terrain. Conversely, an excutive jet, brought down a Boeing passenger jet in the recent past and the small jet landed safely,

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: aLLeKs

I think it would depend completely on how they collided.
If one jet hits the other's control surfaces with its nose cone or some other non-vital part, then one might be able to still fly while on the other aircraft the loss of a major control surface turns it into a flying coffin.

First off, Condolences to the pilots families.

originally posted by: aLLeKs
I am not an expert, but when the 2 planes collide in a way that the Eurofighter could safely fly home, why is the other plane so destroyed, that the whole valley is full of debries?
Please correct me, I am really interested in that, since it is, like I said, really close.

It depends on which part of the aircraft is damaged in the collision.

A big debris field suggests the Learjet broke up in the air so possibly the collision rendered the Lear uncontrollable to the point it broke up from inertial and aerodynamic forces.

That the Typhoon is rated to withstand -3 to +9 G's and has redundant systems to withstand some degree of battle damaged didn't hurt either.

originally posted by: Jonjonj
www.theguardian.com...

I think that unless I am mistaken a euro fighter also crashed in Spain this month, with loss of life. Not great advertising it seems.

Note particularly the comment that beyond 2018 they may discontinue production... Lol

Added link

To me it's a cracking big manic aircraft,
If they stop building it, it's simply a lack of orders, or more likely changes of philosophy by politicians, and/or for that matter military, decisions good or bad.
The thing is, you could argue that the Japanese invented the ultimate flying machine with the kamikaze, AKA something that didn't care about dying, nearly 68 years ago. Now you have the drones taking centre stage, when only the opposition gets hurt, and maybe a 'few' innocent bystanders. A great salve on the mind I don't think, but this is the stage we are at. Military don't care, they only take orders from someone who takes orders from someone else, who probably takes orders between gin and tonics, a kind of blessing.
Upshot is, it's no use blaming the aircraft itself, unless proven otherwise.

Update on the F-35:

The aircraft belongs to the 33rd Fighter Wing Nomads. There was a short grounding of the entire fleet on June 13th, after an F-35B belonging to the USMC suffered an oil leak in flight. Early reports are that the aircraft may be a write off. The fleet (104 aircraft to date) surpassed 16,000 flight hours in April of this year. Both Lockheed and P&W are available to assist in the investigation.

Update on the Learjet:

The collision took place at approximately 8,200 feet. The initial impact sheered one of the planes two engines off. The aircraft crashed in a wooded area, landing approximately 300 feet from a home. The Typhoon had one external fuel tank ripped off the wing in the collision, it's unknown what other damage it suffered, but would have definitely suffered more damage to the wing.

Learjets have been used quite a bit by militaries around the world. Most recently they placed a UAV air refueling system on a Lear 35 to test it out...

a reply to: boomer135

Is that Lear in that photo flying autonomously?

a reply to: Sammamishman

I know they were planning to get to that point. They were flying it like they do with the helicopters now, with pilots on board, but from the ground doing everything.

originally posted by: Sammamishman
a reply to: boomer135

Is that Lear in that photo flying autonomously?

Yes it was. Like zaph said they had a pilot on board just in case.