I had a close call with an F-15 attempting to shoot an AIM-9 head on while flying as an Aggressor at Decimomannu, IT (Sardinia) in the 1980s. The F-15 pilot was so fixated on trying to get a lock-on that he pressed the simulated attack until inside of 9,000 feet before pulling away slightly. At our closure rate of over 1,500 feet per second, it took about 5 seconds from the time he called Fox 2 and when he passed over me at what we estimated as less than 200 feet. I did not see him until he passed me, so I took no evasive maneuvers. After this incident, aircrews in USAFE were restricted from pressing a head on attack inside of 2 nm (12,000 feet) and were to immediately make a hard turn away from the target. I am a lucky man to still be here today.
Jack H. was the F-16 pilot and a good friend. I picked him up at the hospital after he was released. He told me the story of this incident and talked about the things that he thought about prior to ejection. He talked about thinking about Becky, his wife, and their kids and how he wondered if he would ever see them again. He talked about thinking of the ejection process and the training he had received if he ever needed to eject. About the indications in the cockpit and his decision to abandon the aircraft. He went on for about thirty minutes describing his emotions and thoughts. Then he pulled the handle. When I finally saw this video in 1983 I was stunned by the sequence of events. The mind is a wondrous thing.
I have an uncle that was stationed Korea about that time, Rick D. call sign JABO. He was a F-16 pilot as well. I need to check with him and see if he was there when this happened. He later flew with the Marines in FA-18's in the exchange program attached to the USS America.
Scary situation to have to eject from a plane. Many pilots are injured during the ejection process and some are never able to fly again. Glad he remembered his training and was fortunate enough to escape injury.
I was stationed at Kunsan AB when this happened and saw the F-4 in the hanger. It had a hole in the vertical stabilizer that you could through a basketball through, debris holes down the right side and the right wingtip was torn off at the hinge location. Great skill on the aircrew's part to bring it back safely. Thanks for posting this.
@@TheSolongsidekick Although they won't announce everything over shared comms, they still need to have contact with each other. When Raccoon 2 called "Knock it off" he was saying that to the Marines. That way they wouldn't keep trying to fight while there was an emergency going on.
@@KutWrite The F-4 did IFE into Kunsan AB as it was missing his wing from the fold outwards. I saw it at EOR when it was surrounded by the fire dept and what seemed like all of the brass on base.
OH CRAP, this really DID happen while I was there with the Wolfpack and I never thought there would be cockpit video of this. My understanding was that the F4 and F 16 collided and snapped the wing off our F-16 at the root where it joins the body. It created a shotgun effect blast of epoxy resin pieces (that the wing was made out of)and threw those pieces through the metal surfaces of that F4!! Thankfully the aircrews got back safe and that heavy metal F4 made it back leaking like crazy but the Marines pulled that thing in the hanger beside us and made noise for a couple of days and what came out of there was nothing short of billboard amazing. Those guys had cut apart every single aluminum can you can imagine from Coke Pepsi beer cans Etc flatten them out and pop riveted them over all the holes in the fuselage of that F4 and fix the leaks, pressure-tested things and they got that Beast back in the air it was absolutely amazing but it looked like this biggest flying ad ever!! Somewhere I have a picture of that amazing sight
Phantoms could take some serious damage. At Moody we had two Dobbins F-4s land after a midair. The wingman struck leads left stab with his radome and many of the chunks went down the intakes. The pilot only had to shut down one J-79 and landed safely along with his lead. The radome was gone and the radar antenna blew back over the radar package like an umbrella in a hurricane. Many Phantom jocks were Nam vets (this was in the early 1980s, we evacuated in '75) and trained very hard. That's how I learned Phantoms could break engine mounts when over-G'ed and that the bay doors would safely support the engine until landing.
I saw the F-4 as it finished it's emergency landing rollout. It pulled into the North EOR and shutdown with lots of emergency vehicles around it as it was leaking from the right wing where the outboard piece was missing from the hinge area. Later, I heard it had sliced through the F-16's belly tank and was found buried within the engine. It pancaked into mudflats just a few miles from the base.
Lol. Pilots who flew the F4 said it was proof that you can strap two huge engines to a brick and it would still fly. Apparently it was as tough as a brick, too.
Not a stall warning. It was the landing gear warning horn. Varies by aircraft but usually below 10K with a sink rate and less than 200kts. Designed to keep you from landing gear up.
In the F-15 it's the unsafe landing tone. Generated by the ADC or ADP(E-model) if it detects a certain decent rate/airspeed etc w/gear up still. I think it's under 200kts and >2k ft/m decent rate.
Matthew Mulvaney - 2000 foot per minute? It would not be very effective gear warning horn. If you are descending at 2K a minute in the pattern it is just about over gear or not.
As the RIO in the back seat of the collision Phantom, I can answer a few of the comments. Each flight was under discreet AWACS control, so we were not talking to the Vipers directly. I was flying with the squadron commander, who fortunately was one of the most capable pilots with whom I've ever flown. It was a typical intercept until the pass. My job was to call out range to the pilot in miles inside 5 miles. As I said "1 mile", I felt the aircraft pull up and roll right followed by a sever "thud." The aircraft was still flying normally and our wing man was yelling "knock it off" immediately. It took a few seconds to figure things out, but after a somewhat casual glance off the right side, I realized the collision had sheared off most of our right wing outboard of the wing fold. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of hydraulic lines out that far and no internal fuel tank or we would all have been toast. Our wing man stayed with us for a bit as we headed back to Kunsan, but was eventually diverted to Osan with all the other Kunsan traffic. The aircraft flew normally (I suppose) above 240 knots or so, but had a tenancy to roll at slower airspeeds due to the missing right outer wing panel. As we approached Kunsan, all hell broke loose and just about every emergency you could imagine happened - utility hydraulic failure (no brakes now), auto acceleration on one engine, etc. The Kunsan [single] runway is oriented north/south and there was a significant crosswind out of the west which forced us to overshoot on the first landing attempt. The Skipper and I agreed that if we didn't make it on the ground the next time around, we were going to fly west just off the coast and give the aircraft back to the taxpayers. We corrected for the crosswind the second time and were able to plant the aircraft on the runway at a very fast speed. As I recall (but I could be wrong - this was over 40 years ago), our landing speed exceeded the limits of the BAK-12 arresting gear at Kunsan and we elected not to trap for fear of snapping the arresting wire and getting slingshotted off the runway. We had a "good chute" and the Skipper was able to get the aircraft stopped using the pneumatic brake, but we did have a fire in the right main landing gear. With the tower folks screaming at us about the fire, we did an emergency egress and spent the next three or four hours in sickbay getting physicals (probably the most thorough I had in my 23 years of flying). I was amazed at the amount of holes we had in the back of the aircraft. In the spirit of getting back on the horse, we flew an intercept hop the next day. It took a couple of weeks to get an outer wing panel so we could fly the aircraft down to Kimhae to the rework facility. Our airframes folks plugged the smaller holes with whatever was available, including flattened out Coke and Bud cans! The Skipper and I flew the aircraft down to Kimhae (with downlocks on the gear) just before the squadron returned to MCAS Beaufort, SC. The Korean ground crew cracked up when they saw the aircraft. It was pretty funny. BTW, the aircraft side number was #13 and the Skipper and I had flown it from Beaufort to Iwakuni, Japan on the transpac. She was a brute and great testament to the airworthiness of the Phantom, as was witnessed many times in Viet Nam, etc. We proved again the fact that if you put big enough motors on a refrigerator, it would fly! I continued to fly the F-4 and eventually transitioned to the F/A-18D, but the Phantom will always be my first love. I'm certainly grateful God was looking after us all that day. And very glad, too, that Jack was picked up so quickly and not hurt too badly. Thanks for the interest!
This had to be a rough year for the 8th tactical. In November that year Captain Harduval (Who many said to be one of the best US pilots at that time) was killed after his F-16A Block 15 malfunctioned (His widow sued General Dynamics for the defect of the airplane at the time).
Better built? I've worked T-38s and F-16s. The F-16 is a far superior fighter-attack platform. Build quality is the same. Sell your nonsense to someone who hasn't real life experience with those systems. F-20 was fundamentally a re-engined F-5 designed to sell to foreign governments we didn't trust with F-16 or F-15. Not being completely stupid they declined and bought 15s and 16s. Adding another airframe would have been a considerable logistics and support equipment and training hassle.
I hunt with a guy that was stationed there with Captain Harduval. Harduval took off, alone, in conditions that SOP is a no go alone. He took off into grey soup with absolutely no visual references outside. You sit with your shoulders above the canopy rails in a bubble. My friend says he was a mediocre pilot and got disoriented and flew it into the ground, straight down with the burners lit. He also said its not if you vertigo but when in the F-16. My friend is one of the original F-16 pilots. When he retired, he was right up there with most time in the F-16. In addition, I spoke with another hi time F-16 pilot who held exactly the same opinion. I fly fish with him.
Feels bad to see how the machine tried to stay together unwavered and still worked in spite of the critical damage it sustained, recording all the video and audio that happened, even though itself was doomed, falling and spinning at unimaginable G's. Hats off to it.. RIP poor little aircraft.. Also how was the F4 basically unscathed (that it even landed fine) and took minimal damage at that force? That's insane.
Thorekk fucking brutal, I have seen many of these guys on youtube. They show a strange interest in weapons of war when they aren’t watching cartoons. In this case he anthropomorphizes the Viper. Strange.
Since the people above me are fucking morons apparently and can't give a serious answer. A person in the comments who claims to have saw the aircraft in person since they worked on-base said that there was a hold in the vert. stabilizer that you could fit a basketball through, its not clear and I don't know for sure, but it I would take a guess that the F-16 just "scathed" the vert. stabilizer which must have dragged on the fuselage of the F-16 as it pulled away from the F4, which would explain how the F-16 pilot immediately know that the aircraft was on fire, by smoke or a fire in the cockpit. I'm not an expert, it's just my thoughts and limited observations. I don't know as much about aircraft as some people do, but that's the most helpful information I can think up. Have a great day!
That plane had a dirty flat spin going on there. That would have been worse than the centrifuge because your weight would be throwing you to the dash rather than into the seat (I think ?). Either way, it would have been fatal. Excellent Video.
@@redondinhoful Flat spins are recoverable. The F-16 even has a switch that gives the fbw more authority over the control surfaces to let you recover faster and easier. They had a floor of 26,000 feet, more than enough for a pilot to get the aircraft back. Of course, in this case, the flat spin wasn't the reason he ejected.
@@JNelson_ I'm pretty sure you can put an F-16 into a flat spin under normal circumstances. I think an F-18 will let you do it too. It also has a "spin mode" that increases the control surface authority which was a switch in the cockpit. It is now automated and the switch exists for maintenance purposes.
He decided his plane was toast and got out promptly which saved his life. To many pilots try to fly the plane there plenty of sad videos out there that show the results of not taking fast and decisive action.
Man, they had digital HUD's in 1982?! Christ, I wasn't even born for 4 more years. And if you think about it, 1982 wasn't too long after Vietnam. We had so much tech coming out in the 80's... if the timeline for the Vietnam War had shifted maybe 5 or so years later, the Vietnamese would have instead fought the US military machine that went in and dominated the 4th largest standing army in Iraq. They better thank their lucky stars didn't have to face the 80's US military.
Not sure what you mean by digital HUD but that's the same kind of HUD as was used in the 60's. Only difference is that the more modern you get the more stuff is shown in the HUD. The only thing I've heard called a digital HUD is when it can display different colours, which the early F-16's certainly didn't..
@@frankeinfish By the digital HUD, I mean the computer displayed information that is shown on the screen. Computers started coming into their own in the 1980's... the only flight tech I'm aware of in the 60's was the Apollo Guidance Computer... and that was essentially fixed numbers on a panel display. I've never seen any footage from the Vietnam War where you can see computer generated numbers and information on the screen in the pilot's forward field of vision. Got any links to videos or websites? I'd love to see some stuff I haven't seen before, I'm a bit of a book hound too.
30 And Hating It - HUD technology started with reflector sites in the 1930s: the only information displayed at that time was an aiming reticle that took into account how much you needed to lead your target. They added additional pieces of information over the years from there....
@@30AndHatingIt I'm assuming you take for granted that an F-14 Tomcat had a HUD in it, since Top Gun was such a popular film. That plane was first flown in 1970, 16 years before you were born, and it had a pretty sophisticated HUD.
@@bartonkj I have seen the reflector sites in some German WW2 aircraft, but my earliest recollection of seeing something moderately sophisticated were the sights in the F-86's in Korea. But these were analog computers... the display in the above video is of a digital nature, and while I absolutely acknowledge it's existence in the time frame outlined in the video, I don't recall seeing anything like it prior to the 80's. I've started researching to see what I can find.
"It is easy to tell where the F-4 sliced through" Uh, I can't tell. Hell, if not for the jet engine nozzle, and on closer inspection missile pylon, I would not have been able to tell what this wreckage even was. :o
The F-16 landed upside down in mud flats about 10 miles from Kunsan AB. The fuselage where the video recorder was manage to stay mostly intact. I don't know how badly the video cassette was damaged. I suspect they had to get some mud and salt water off of the tape and install it into a new cassette to watch it.
Matthew McKay technically yes the f4 gets the kill and it just proves that the 60s era jets were better built than the newer jet's but in a 1v1 fight the f16 wins hands down
The moral of this story is the F-4 Phantom was the better aircraft,we should've kept making them. Tough like P47 Thunderbolts and B-17's And oh yeah Mark my word, we should be cranking out new A-10's right now by the thousands. One day you'll see why.
I am surprise the video was still operational after ejecting. I inspected egress items in the Air Force and though the cockpit would be destroyed during the ejection sequence.
Scary situation, I'm glad I never had to eject from my F-16. You can bet he was thinking about his family before ejecting. Just shows you that anything can happen in the blink of an eye.
Phillip Simmons not any more as of almost 6 years ago. I had a bad boating accident while I was on a fishing trip. With all of the back pain force me to not fly anymore unfortunately
So, what happened to the F-4 pilot? Nothing said about him. Did he crash? RTB? Ejected? Survive? Was he still ready for the training mission, wondering what all the fuss over the radio was about?
So does anyone have a good idea of what exactly happened? It looks like the f16 pilot tried to pitch up and roll or was that just the plane hitting the f4 and tumbling? If the f16 pilot tried to pitch up did the f4 pilot do that to, or did the f16 just not clear it in time
It looks like both raccoons were late tally, both calling bogeydope. If they were assigned red and blue sanctuaries (to maintain until tally) then they potentially broke them before the bandit called tally and both raccoons called tally. The nautical mile readout showed 1nm /6000ft rapidly decreasing as lead took the fox 2 shot then broke up to avoid collision but collided with the wing of the phantom I believe. Normal procedure is to break out/right well before 1.5nm (or not across flight paths) to preserve a safe bubble but it looks like both jets went up maybe together and collided.
The closure rate on the two jets was over 1000 knots. That's more than 1150 mph. They were simulating a dogfight, it's a common training tactic. They just didn't see each other fast enough most likely, given the speed at which they came together.
Every part of the F16 was damaged. F4 lost a wing tip and some stabilizer damage. Sounds like the F4 sliced into the bottom of the F16 probably damaging the engine which caused the fire.
Lived to fly another day! Or just plain live. Glad he had the opportunity to eject and the F-4 got back to the airbase safely. Could of been much worse. That's kinda like a Totota Camry running into a 70's model Chevy Impala.
phan·tom /ˈfan(t)əm/ noun noun: phantom; plural noun: phantoms a ghost. a figment of the imagination. Seems like a lot of damage for a figment of the imagination.
That plane was in a deep stall long before the Stall warning came on. fluttering like a butterfly but falling like a rock, Welcome to the Martin Baker Fan Club.
All of those claver comments.. You should be ashamed of your yourselves. It seems you dont know how much it takes to reach a fighter pilot's position.. its not like driving your slow and boring car and for sure they put theirs lives for the sake of the country, something that you people will never do because you are selfish
detaildon Err... where did you get that definition from? It means stop whatever it is you are doing, generally for safety reasons. If engaged in BFM, stop the manoeuvre. Starting an engine that develops a fuel leak, cut the engine. Where the situation is safety critical, all personnel would naturally avoid any radio comms not directly relevant to the incident (assuming they have been properly trained and are applying that training) so that important communications get through - your statement is a consequence of the events, not the meaning of the call. Folks wouldn’t carry on high-energy manoeuvres and just stop radio calls, thats a recipe for an even bigger catastrophe; it all stops on that call, and folks role-call their acknowledgements (so everyone knows whos still in the airspace) and immediately begin deconfliction (so no-one else gets involved, allowing all resources to focus on the critical elements of the rescue/recovery of the original participants).
They can spend 20 million billion dollars on an airplane but can’t buy a $100 camera to film the stuff with. Filmed with a potato. Wow intensely exciting I’m glad the guy got out
Voice of the lady comes on, Warning, warning ! Autopilot isn't going kick in and fly it back to base and land ? He takes on heat Seeker and pitches up right into the Phantom so he never saw him ? That's a Phantom for you !
LOL whats with the panic? you are still alive and able to eject... MAYDAY!! MAYDAY!!!! not an expected behavior from a combat pilot, keep calm and handle the situation
I would have the facial expression of your avatar probably, but i would not be screaming over the radio, i would simply eject. also, it wasn't a missile, it was a training exercise and they had a collision, given that this is not even a war zone, it is even more reason to remain calm.
Forgot a mayday. I have heard pilots in a lot worse situation and remained calm. Like one facing certain death and simply and calmly saying "Oh, shit". but none of us know how we would react until actually faced with the situation. Some poop their pants. And that can be a good thing if you take internal injuries.
