Posted on 07/07/2015 12:20:00 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The two planes that collided Tuesday morning were an F-16 fighter and a Cessna 150, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which said it is investigating the collision. The accident occurred about 11 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
A spokesman for Berkeley County said the two planes collided over Lewisfield Plantation in Moncks Corner, a town about 45 minutes north of Charleston. The county government said it is setting up a command center in that town, which is near Lake Moultrie.
Debris has been seen on land as well as in the water, officials said Tuesday.
The pilot of the F-16 Fighting Falcon safely ejected, according to a statement from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C., where the aircraft originated. Authorities from the base said it was gathering a team of investigators to determine what happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Cool your Dad did some great work then!
Way back in the late '80's a couple of low-flying EF-111s from Mountain Home AFB in Idaho scared the crap out of me. I was driving between Idaho and Bend, OR to go see my grandmother when my radar detector went nuts. Then two big shadows engulfed my car one right after the other. I thought I was about to be abducted by aliens. They were just flying the valley with their terrain-following radar. Glad they were ours.
Latest is that they are dead and are from Berkeley County (north suburban Charleston), and had just taken off for Myrtle Beach.
I’m still waiting for you to give one reason why you think it is so important for you to have this information.
Just one.
What is it?
Come on, you can think of one good reason can’t you?
Helicopters = "10,000 parts flying in close formation, looking for a chance to crash".
Does an F16 have a radar?
Sorry, that’s classified.
Yup; that was a Marine E/A6b that was hotdogging where he wasn’t supposed to and then he did the unbelievably slimy thing of destroying the videotape they had made of the flight. Hope the bastard was hanged.
What aircraft?
If f-16s do not have radar that can acquire a hostile aircraft, then that means that they are vectored to the target.
So assuming a very dark night or IFR from 400 ft. to 12,000 or so, which certainly is not uncommon, how do F16s get visual contact?
Having spent more than a few rough nights on instruments, I can't imagine a radar vector to wingtip to wingtip on such a night.
In past years, I never had the time or the interest in military aviation to ask, but this accident intrigues me because I spent so much time in that area.
That part of your response puzzled me. You've piloted 172 and maybe 150s so you should know how limited the visibility is in those things. Limited forward in level attitude, pretty good down to the sides, nonexistent upward and aft. I remember only too well having to bank back and forth to see what my wings were hiding while I was transiting areas with high traffic.
The Viper has way better fields of view than an slow-moving, low flying high wing bird. Nonetheless, I am sure they'll blame the dead guy.
We always use to say that they don’t actually fly, they simply beat the air into submission...
“Come on, you can think of one good reason can’t you?”
Maybe curious to see if the Iraqi Air Force lost another General.
OK, I’ll accept that as one reason.
Paulie seems to be on a head hunting expedition for one of our airmen for some reason though. I resent that.
under air traffic control via AWACs, Tower, ATAC, ASAC, etc. Vector control was the euphemism my ATAC/ASACs in the Navy used to indicate they had direct control on helos, p-3s, and other aircraft when directing them. Likely a term of art vice tech, but intent of the question is who had responsibility for monitoring the airspace. With the exception of transits I dont’ recall seing a fighter or any aircraft not under “vector control” in the Navy.
Damn shame.
Prayers for their family.
Thanks for the update.
Oh. . .it’s a deployed Navy thing.
Never heard it during my entire aviation career.
AWACS, ATC don’t use it.
And that means you are doing a good scan. . .like you are supposed to. My point stands.
“The Viper has way better fields of view than an slow-moving, low flying high wing bird. Nonetheless, I am sure they'll blame the dead guy”
F-16s have great visibility but they are still subject to LOS issues, the number one cause of mid-airs. A non-moving dot means you are on a collision course, be the non-moving dot being straight ahead or off-set. A non-moving dot is hard to see, especially small dots like small aircraft. A larger dot means a larger aircraft and that means the larger dot can be seen earlier (and further away) than a smaller dot.
Right now we don't know the circumstances of the mishap. Assessing blame is not appropriate at this time.
The mishap investigation will do their job. Fairly and without bias. Especially the military investigators. Speaking from personal experience investigating mishaps, we seek truth as we do not want to ignore facts that could prevent another mishap.
Please review my posts on this thread.
Closing to get visual contact at night is darned hard.
Closing to get visual contact IFR (in the goo) is darned near impossible.
At night in the clear you run an intercept profile based on many factors and you usually maneuver to the rear of the target aircraft and monitor your closure rate to creep up. For a re-join after take-off you do the same, or reforming at night after doing a mission you do the same thing, or if you are rejoining in a turn you use perspective (knowing what his external lights look like and maintain that spatial relationship as you close) and you you know the rejoin airspeed to control your rate of closure.
Under IFR, in the goo. . .whew. Easy to maneuver to the rear and closing somewhat on the other aircraft can be done. . .but depending upon how thick the goo is, you usually stay in trail and never close to fingertip. If you are in that much goo, you remain in trail.
Cheers
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