U.S. F-16 fighter based in Italy may have crashed in Adriatic

U.S. F-16 fighter based in Italy may have crashed in Adriatic

www.reuters.com

(Reuters) - A U.S. F-16 fighter jet was feared to have crashed on Monday during a training exercise over the Adriatic Sea, and the U.S. Air Force said the status of its Italy-based pilot was unknown.

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Possibly aircraft malfunction, pilot tried to regain control, due to fog was not aware how close he was to the water and crashed.
If he's not found fast, he'll freeze to death.
I really hope he is found. I am sure people @ Aviano are doing the best they can!
I just got aware of this story this morning, I searched, no similar threads.

www.reuters.com
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I wonder how old the thing was.......We grew up seeing these......they are kind of outdated. Imagine how many hours that craft has had in operation. The frames are all bent to hell from what I have read. Tons of issues.

But still, there are preflight checks, inspections etc, I imagine there are tons of procedures and checklists to be done before it gets cleared for takeoff....
Something might have been overlooked, instrument failure, or flight control mechanisms, who knows.
And he didn't eject, maybe tried to save it till the last second, thinking he might recover in the air....
Edit: here's some reading on F-16
Scribd F-16 Ops Procedure

Originally posted by zedVSzardoz
they are kind of outdated. Imagine how many hours that craft has had in operation. The frames are all bent to hell from what I have read. Tons of issues.

Actually they are still making them....

www.businessinsider.com...

Lockheed Martin Has Enough Orders To Keep Building F-16 Jet Fighters Through 2016

reply to post by zedVSzardoz


They average around the early 20s IIRC. The airframes are in good shape on the later blocks. Some of the earlier blocks had problems with cracking in the wings, or the pressure bulkheads. They're not bent too badly though. Most of them are in good shape. They're also very reliable. Just about all the bugs have been worked out, and only individual aircraft problems occur. The early blocks have more issues obviously but Aviano flies the Block 30/32 and 40/42 IIRC. The 30s entered service in 87 the 40s in 89.

reply to post by GakunGak


Lots of things can go wrong even with all the checks. It could be something as simple as the pilot getting disoriented by the weather, to something extreme like engine failure. But all the checks in the world aren't going to guarantee that everything works.

reply to post by Zaphod58

It could be something as simple as the pilot getting disoriented by the weather

care to ..

elaborate on this ?? being that he's flying 90% by instruments due to fog ..

reply to post by Komodo


He's supposed to be flying on instruments due to fog. Depending on what they were doing as far as training, at some point he may have looked outside, or he may have listened to his body instead of his instruments, and his body told him something completely different.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Lol 'bent' and 'plane' shouldn't be in the same sentence together... 'not bent too badly' lol. I reckon that's like being 'not that pregnant'.

then again I don't know jack about fighter jets. But I thought if something was bent they'd fix it? So much for the greatest military in the world if their planes are 'bent'.

Regarding the OP........ perhaps he flew into a void like flight 19 in the Bermuda triangle?

No distress beacon ?

reply to post by bigdohbeatdown


Depends on what and where it's bent. For years they had a bent B-52 at Castle Air Force Base they used for flight training. They would always do one flight without allowing the students to trim the aircraft. They always got off at the end of the flight hunched over rubbing their back.

It's entirely possible that you can bend something that doesn't affect flight at all, and if it's a major structural component that you can only get to at a depot, or you can't remove and replace, they'll leave it as is.

ETA: The ELT (beacon) is in the seat, so if he didn't get out, it doesn't go off. He also carries a radio that gives off a beacon for other pilots to home in on. So he probably didn't get out unfortunately.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Explanation: St*rred!

Uhmmm? Why was he flying solo ... even if for just a training mission ... where was his wingman?

Personal Disclosure: Could he of accidentally entered foreign airspace and been shot down?

P.S. @ the OP'er S&F!

reply to post by OmegaLogos


His wingman probably couldn't see him in the fog if the weather was that bad. He was somewhere in the area though, you can be sure of it.

Italian SAR teams have found wreckage they identified as belonging to the missing aircraft. Contact was lost around 8pm local, which leads me even more to believe it was a case of the pilot becoming disoriented. Still no sign of the pilot.

www.flightglobal.com...

The Air Force has declined to name the pilot, but the Modesto Bee has reported that the family of Captain Lucas Gruenther was notified he was missing following the crash. He is from Twain Harte California. Officials said he declared a problem with the aircraft, but declined to specify what the problem was, as it is part of the investigation.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


Even if he entered into Slovenia or Croatia, he still wouldn't be shot down, they are NATO-friendly countries.
Also, every exercise is being announced beforehand to avoid friendly fire, for all parties involved, including countries airspace.
No way he's shot down. Instrument failure, electronics or anything plane related or pilot error.
If he was, he would say so before losing contact, and besides, he said he lost control of the plane.

They may call it a Search and Rescue still, but at this point, I'll guarantee you it's a Recovery, and he didn't get out. If you don't hear from the ELT, or the survival radio within a few hours at most, then the odds of ejection are almost non-existant. Whatever happened either happened fast, and he made the radio call and couldn't get out in time, or he tried to save the plane and ended up riding it in.

Aviano has started launching F-16s using their targeting pods to assist with the search. Aviano doesn't have any kind of SAR craft, so they've been relying on the Italian government, and local fishermen to search.

A parachute of some kind was reported off Cervia near where the aircraft went down. It's not sure whether it belongs to Capt. Gruenther's aircraft or not, but it might be a sign he ejected.

The body of Captain Lucas Gruenther was recovered by Italian Search and Rescue crews. He was the 31st Fighter Wing chief of Flight Safety, an Academy graduate, and flew numerous combat missions in Afghanistan in 2011.

The AIB report states that the pilot was using NVGs on a training flight, and radioed that he was spatially disoriented during training. He entered a 45 degree nose low, 90 degree bank, and attempted to recover. During ejection his helmet was ripped off, and he sustained fatal head and neck trauma caused by loose shoulder straps, and a 40G deceleration by the drogue chute on the ejection seat.