F-15 accident report released

The AIB report for the Massachusetts ANG F-15 that crashed in August 2014 has been released. There were several items that were inconclusive as the Eagle doesn't have a data recorder on board.

Mission planning began on 26 August, for the flight to New Orleans to have a new radar system installed. Several radar components were removed and replaced with ballast, but there is no evidence that contributed to the accident. Lt. Col. Morris Fontenot removed himself from flight status, reporting symptoms of a head cold or sinus infection.

Col Fontenot was a StanEval pilot with 2100 hours in the F-15. He was highly experienced and well regarded.

On 27 August he reported to the base and completed mission planning, with no signs of any health issues. He boarded aircraft 86-0157 for the flight. Preflight, engine start, and post engine start checks showed no problems with the aircraft. The aircraft departed Barnes ANG base as HAWK 11 at 0806L.

During climb Col. Fontenot spoke to several controllers with no evidence of hypoxia, congestion, or physical issues. He reached FL430 at 0823L.

At 0855L, HAWK 11 began a 12,000 fpm descent. At 0856L, a routine frequency change was requested. At 0856:24, while passing through FL380, an emergency was declared. Washington Center requested confirmation of aircraft and pilot status. At 0856:31, they received "Affirm, standby" as the aircraft passed FL360. That was the last radio call from the aircraft.

At 0858L HAWK 11 impacted the ground at a 60-70 degree nose low attitude, while supersonic. It left a 15-20 foot deep crater at impact.

The investigation was able to determine that at some point during the flight, an Environmental Control System warning light activated in the cockpit. This indicated a higher than normal temperature in the avionics bay. The standard response for this is a decent, with an aggressive descent used from high altitude.

As there was no attempt to recover the aircraft, or to eject once the decent was initiated, the Board came to the conclusion that an unknown event caused Col. Fontenot to become incapacitated once the decent was initiated.

The aircraft had 271.6 hours remaining until its next inspection, with 5 write ups that didn't require immediate attention. The 180 day oxygen system check and purge had been completed with no signs of problems in the system. The regulator was recovered, but was too damaged to draw any conclusions from. The ECS was providing pressure and cooling to the cockpit at impact.

Poor guy probably G-loc'd and for whatever reason he did not recover. otherwise he would have ejected.

Double post.

Is this the F-15 that was discussed here? In regards, it was mentioned that the nose section that included the cockpit came off. Probable cause might be aging fleet of F-15s due to stress?

a reply to: AlongCamePaul


N/M, maybe.

a reply to: Bigburgh

This was the one that crashed in Virginia last summer. He was flying from Massachusetts to the base in New Orleans to have a radar upgrade performed and just fell out of the sky.

Thanks. I seem to remember another F-15 that had a similar incident. Flight stress. The fuselage separating from the the engine intakes forward. To clarify, 2 separate F-15's . But I remember this crash. You had a thread on it.

a reply to: Bigburgh

That was over Missouri several years ago. He was doing ACM training and it broke up around him.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What do you think it was, or most likely causes in your opinion? Medical event, cockpit fire, suicide, loss/failure of control systems?

a reply to: engineercutout

If he really was fighting a cold, and rolled inverted and dove hard for the ECS fault the rapid change could have caused a spike in pressure in his head that caused a blackout, or near blackout. I would think though, being a StanEval pilot he'd know that was a possibility, especially since he removed himself from the schedule the day before.

a reply to: Zaphod58

In that scenario, shouldn't he have had time to recover? What's the maximum time he could've been incapacitated?

a reply to: engineercutout

Depending on how bad it was, anywhere from a few seconds to a couple minutes.