U.S. Airforce F-16 Crashes in Iraq

Newsmax is reporting the crash of a U.S. F-16 in Iraq. No word on the pilot yet.

The F-16CG jet was supporting coalition ground forces when it went down Monday afternoon in Anbar province, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military said in a brief statement. The statement had no information about the suspected cause of the crash or the fate of the pilot.

U.S. Air Force Jet Crashes in Iraq

Lets hope the pilot is ok...

Keep us posted its seems like its been awhile since a plane has been downed in iraq. thanks for the news. Praying for the safety of the pilot.

lol thankx for info lol

lets just hope those CSAR's and PJ's did the business and whipped him outta there in a hail of mini gun fire ...


The thought of a pilot being caught alive makes my stomach turn a few flips thats for sure..


Prayers for the pilot and his family.

lol thankx for info lol

What's up with the laughing? You think this news is funny? You have some serious issues to sort out with yourself if you do.

Originally posted by Canada_EH
Keep us posted its seems like its been awhile since a plane has been downed in iraq.

I doubt it was downed, seeing as how there are no enemy SAM's in Iraq I can't see it being shot down. Most likely there was a problem with the aircraft.

[edit on 27-11-2006 by WestPoint23]

There are still MANPADs running around in Iraq, which are SAMs. Plenty of shots still happening, you just don't see it in the press that much anymore. Though I agree that the more likely scenario is a mechanical failure.

Yeah but no coalition fighter aircraft lost since the end of MJC was declared (3) have been shot down, all crashed do to pilot error, collisions, or mechanical problems.

I was responding to your comment

seeing as how there are no enemy SAM's in Iraq

which is wrong. Mechanical failure is indeed the most likely scenario, but I wanted to clear up any misconception that there are no SAMs in Iraq, when there are.

Edit: to replace Mechanical error with Mechanical failure

[edit on 27-11-2006 by Willard856]

Most likely mechanical failure since one witness mentions that the F-16 seems to be having trouble. No missiles coming at the aircraft nor smoke coming from the aircraft.

No doubt they'll try and claim it as a shoot-down (The insurgents, I mean), rather like they did in afghanistan when we lost the Nimrod.

UPDATE

U.S. F-16 crashes in Iraq, pilot dead - witnesses

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - An F-16 fighter on a combat mission near Baghdad crashed on Monday, and the pilot appeared to have died after ejecting.

A local journalist who shot film of the wreckage of the plane after it came down north of Falluja in Iraq's western Anbar province said he was in no doubt the pilot was dead.

Residents in the town of Garma said the crash site had been surrounded by U.S. troops.

While helicopter crashes in Iraq are not uncommon, it is rare for a fixed-wing aircraft to come down.

Link

My thoughts go out to the family of this lost service member.

Well, after this article it appears to me that for whatever reason the pilot probably ejected too late or something went wrong on ejection.


And Willard, when I wrote that I was referring to large SAM systems/sites. I did not consider, perhaps mistakenly so, MANPAD's to be SAM's in the traditional sense.

[edit on 27-11-2006 by WestPoint23]

Hey, it's not a biggie. MANPADs are considered SAMs, and are reported as such. When we were across for the "warfighting" phase of Iraqi Freedom, surface to air firings were broken into SAMs (including MANPADS) and AAA (including larger projectiles like RPGs, if they could be identified).

Im not sure many details, but I am pretty sure it was the "Squadron Jet" 90-0776, a Block 40K F-16. My guess would be a FLCS failure after taking "light" damage.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone for contributing to my thread. I just joined here and it's pretty cool to see other people responding to what I've tried to contribute to this website.

I just found an article where the enemy is now claiming responsibility for the loss of the F-16 and the pilot.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Two Iraqi militant groups claimed to have downed a U.S. F16 plane in retaliation for what they said was the U.S. army's killing of tens of Iraqis, Al Jazeera television said on Tuesday.
Terrorists Claim Downing F-16

This was predicted but is highly suspicious. I don't believe that the bird was shot down.

(Image removed)




(Mod edit: Image removed per T&C:

Originally posted by SimonGray
1a) Offensive Content: You will not post links to images or use avatars and signatures that are offensive, abusive, distruptive and/or hateful. You will not use images, avatars or link to domains that contain gore, mutilation,pornography or illegal content.

Members are free to view such content on other websites. -- Majic)

[edit on 11/28/2006 by Majic]

Just to let you know, I've requested that the pic of the dead pilot be removed. It has no place in this forum. We know the pilot is dead from the reporting, the picture adds nothing. I will assume that it was innocently posted. But a bit discretion and common sense would be appreciated next time before posting such things Sultan.

[edit on 28-11-2006 by Willard856]

Originally posted by Willard856

lol thankx for info lol

What's up with the laughing? You think this news is funny? You have some serious issues to sort out with yourself if you do.

Agree Willard856.
It doesnt matter where the pilot is from its a matter of the pilots being ok
korean1 those comments arent welcome here.

How on earth is i even possible

Let's hope the pilot is safe

Westpoint23,

I can.

If you're flying an unimproved LANTIRN pod* with poor stabilization and little or no 'digital zoom' (slew a search box over a given area of interest and have the processor expand the area around it before designating an aimpoint) and a Gen-2 thermal well which is vastly better than Navy systems but still only about X8-X12 effective compared to the X64 or better magnification available today.

Now further imagine you are in a single seat airframe with a 5X5 inch green screen heads up display down by your kneecap. You are using ballistic ordnance (either GBU-12 or 38, possibly 70mm FFAR) to 'keep collaterals low' relative to ballistic slant and literal /time/ that a lost-spot munition can go downrange or suffer from crosswinds.

And so you are down around 3,500-5,000ft, flying a linear path right over the target, easy meat for even the SA-7 class and all it's Chinese/Egyptian/Iranian hybrids. Heck, even flak becomes an option.

And when you come down, you come down too close to get away from the highly irritated insurgents which you were CASing to death but moments before.

Indeed, 'Somewhere around here' there is a specific video of an F-16 calling out a group of militia men wandering down a street (more mob than warriors) and getting the G-FAC authorization to butcher them. He does. Releasing a GBU-12 while continually adjusting the aimpoint towards the front and then middle of the crowd.

Boom. Maybe 20-30 men are dead. And because the flight path (no 'designator turn' to keep the pod FOV unmasked) was level and given the countdown on the munition TOF and angle of the pod, he had to be under 10,000ft. And probably under 350 knots.

If that is what they are doing over there then it is just a matter of time until somebody twigs to the notion of how easy it would be to kill one.

Even as it highlights my own belief that it's time to switch to UCAVs.

Because a UCAV can have a thimble or a scab window that looks STRAIGHT DOWN instead of being forward-biased along the flight path (complete lower hemispheric coverage). And because of the resolution and mark/retrack/zoom functions on those optics (EOTS level, Gen-3/4) it will be able to see to roughly the same level from 20K and 10nm as a fast mover does raising their toupees.


KPl.


P.S. There is STILL no confirmed sighting of IR/UV based MAWS systems on Iraqi theater jets. Despite multiple options (PIDS+ and TERMA driven inserts in the dead space of ALQ pods) to fast-track a hangable solution. As such, what little effect flares might have on late generation MANPADS at this envelope point (heart of the envelope vs. skirted edge of it) is further degraded by the need to have a wingman on one half of the CAS wagonwheel look down on his buddy to keep a MOB level 'eyes out' scan for dust devils and smoke trails while himself 'out of the way' of any secondary engagement attempt.

Again, given the massive amount of _HEADS DOWN_ work involved in running any overhead CAS platform from a single seat and a primitive pod, the reaction time lag inherent to spotter-talks-victim-pops EXCM use is going to become critical at lower altitudes.

Again, if true, once again we have direct evidence that the only thing the USAF is interested in is sustaining itself as a manned uber alles fools-to-the-fore force. Not one which can fight even a minor war with really useful systems.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*This is admittedly a guess-and-gosh assumption based on the F-16 block number. Some LANTIRNs have been improved with elements of the Navy and '2000' program upgrades. Some F-16CGs are now flying with Sniper. And at least in the Guard, there is equally a chance for LITENING on the .42s. But generally the Block 40 is a LANTIRN ship and given a working PGM shooter option, they haven't fixed what IS broken while busy supplying the better pods to the .30 fleet and the 15E community among Reserve/Active users. Indeed, at least as of the mid-90s we were still woefully short of LDPs for the majority of the 16 inventory overall fewer than 1 in 8 I think it was. The ATP program was supposed to generate 600 Sniper pods but I heard that they chopped that number (and gave half to the otherwise useless .50s) so as to 'not threaten the JSF'.

[edit on 28-11-2006 by ch1466]