A-10 pilot manages to 'belly land' his plane after canopy blows off, and landing gear fails

Business Insider ^ | 8/15/17 | ALEX LOCKIE

[Rebelbase]

After a routine training run in Alpena County, Michigan in late July, US Air National Guard Capt. Brett DeVries survived the perfect storm of malfunctions to safely land his A-10 Thunderbolt II on its belly without the benefit of landing gear.

During a training exercise where A-10 pilots practice dropping inert bombs and ripping the planes' massive gun, DeVries' gun malfunctioned. Moments later, his canopy blew off his plane as he flew along at 375 miles an hour, according to a US Air National Guard write up of the event .

The incredible winds smacked DeVries head against his seat, nearly incapacitating him. "It was like someone sucker punched me," he said. "I was just dazed for a moment."

DeVries wingman, Major Shannon Vickers, then flew under his plane to assess the damage, finding bad news. The panels under his plane had been damaged, and it was unclear if he would be able to lower his landing gear.

[crz]

He has a lot of splainin to do to the boys.

[crz]

Wasnt it a warthog that a pilot landed with the wings about blown off?

[GraceG]

Don't believe me... GOOGLE IT!

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

It could probably still fly when refueled.

[EarlyBird]

At least they saved the magnificent plane for later fighting (hopefully)!

[Pelham]

"Wasnt it a warthog that a pilot landed with the wings about blown off?"

Gulf War 2 Battle Damaged A-10

[DoughtyOne]

I’m sure there will be many such stores with the F-35 belly-flopping a landing.

/s

Is there one sentient brain cell left in W., D.C.?

[353FMG]

One doesn’t go to D.C. because one has brains, but because it is a lucrative business and a place to become wealthy.

[Paladin2]

Looks bigger than I thought.

He walked away? Good landing....

[TChris]

A-10 is one tough mother of a plane. :)

[DoughtyOne]

I agree with that. Sadly...

We are living in a time when chaos rules. There is an all out effort by the Left (and I believe Satan), to confound traditional morals and beliefs.

I honestly believe God is beginning to withdraw His presence so sin can play out it’s final chapters.

The end is nearing...

[pfflier]

If you got 26+ years of active duty as an air traffic controller seems you should know the designators of the test aircraft are YF-22 and YF-35.

Also you should know it was the YF-22 that is famous for the oscillations in the youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faB5bIdksi8

You should also know that the F-16 did that first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAp4RtGKbHE

So far, the F-35 hasn't done that.

So...what exactly was your AFSC???

[Bikkuri]

We had one in the first Gulf War that had most of it’s tail blown off, and still managed to come in and land.

[Bikkuri]

I agree.. and the F-35 should have never been built. The F22 is leagues about that piece of junk.

(thank Obunghole for that)

[Spktyr]

Yup.

The plane is designed to be able to continue flying with half the tail, one engine and most of one wing completely blown off.

[Yosemitest]

Growing old is NOT fun, and one day ...you'll understand.
I was there, in the tower at March AFB, when LA Center called and told us that departures to Edwards were on indefinite hold, due to an F-35 cash on short final.

Pentagon: F-35 Won’t Have a Chance in Real Combat
Fatal flaws within the cockpit of the US military’s most expensive fighter jet ever are causing further problems with the Pentagon’s dubious F-35 program.

Just weeks after a fleet of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters was grounded for reasons unrelated, a new report from the Pentagon warns that any pilot that boards the pricey aircraft places himself in danger without even going into combat.

In a leaked memo from the Defense Department’s director of the Operational Test and Evaluation Directorate to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon official prefaces a report on the F-35 by cautioning that even training missions cannot be safely performed on board the aircraft at this time.

“The training management system lags in development compared to the rest of the Integrated Training Center and does not yet have all planned functionality,” the report reads in part.

In other sections of the lengthy DoD analysis, Operational Test and Evaluation Directorate Director J. Michael Gilmore outlines a number of flaws that jeopardize the safety of any pilot that enters the aircraft.
...

[Yosemitest]

AFSC 27290.

[Yosemitest]

I'm not sure, but I believe they were testing some F-35s at Tyndall AFB, FL, before I retired out of Eglin AFB/Duke Field, and they had numerous unstably problems with them, also.
One of the Supervisors of Flying that came up to the tower at Eglin, had transferred out of Tyndall, and was flying F-15s at Eglin.
He told me of the control problems on final, and the numerous computer problem the Lightening II was having.
He said he'd much rather fly and fight in an F-15 or an F16.
There was just too much that the politicians and the higher-ups had no comprehension of, that a working fighter pilot has to do in combat, and that ... that piece of junk was very undependable.
They tried this concept of "one type aircraft to do everything in combat" before and it did NONE of the jobs it needed to do, with any accuracy, he said.
It's best to design an aircraft to do one or two jobs in combat, and no more.
That was, you wind up with the best weight to power ratio to do the job.
Anything else, and you wind up with an aircraft that's too heavy, too slow, and not very agile in the "air-combat" role.
But politicians don't care about "mission", and all they're concerned about is votes and kickbacks.

[Bikkuri]

I was down at Homestead, when it was still a base. We had F16s, and Eglin was our Rival with the F15s ;^)

I got out right before the YF22 (later F22) was starting production (end stages of prototype testing).