[doorgunner69]

That sucks to lose a good airplane like that. Pilot tried to save it, hard decision.

Watched several F-4 Phantoms with landing gear malfunctions belly in. Scary, one at night trailed flaming fuel from the wing tanks. Catching the arresting gear while sliding seemed to be an iffy proposition.

[central_va]

Funny thing about landing with gear up the brakes don’t work too well.

[Jaxter]

In the early 70s I was a crew chief in Barrier Maintenance at Taegu AB, Korea. We had a ROKAF F-4C hit the barrier (BAK-12) at about 150 Kts and even after dumping as much fuel as possible, weighing over 40klbs. He had zero hydraulics and his fuel dumps were stuck open so when he stopped the aircraft was totally engulfed in flames. I thought the crew was toast. The USAF fire dept. guys had that fire out so quick it didn't even singe the paint.

It was one of the most memorable engagements I ever saw. With the speed and weight factors it was what was referred to as a Regime 4 engagement and required both the cable and tape be changed which was no fun at all.