Posted on 09/09/2017 9:29:33 AM PDT by SandRat
FORT THOMAS — For the second time in two years, an Iraqi jet crashed during a training mission above the Arizona desert, killing its pilot.
According to 1st Lt. Lacey Roberts, public information officer with the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard, an F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed in Fort Thomas at about 3 p.m.
The crash was in the vicinity of Blackrock Road, near the shooting range.
“The pilot was doing a routine training mission in that area,” Roberts told Eastern Arizona Courier.
Cause of the crash has not yet been released. An interim safety investigation board has been convened.
“Typically, the preliminary results are compiled in about two weeks, and then a full investigative board will take over,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the plane carried one person, whom she reported was Iraqi. She said she did not yet have authority to release the victim’s identity.
“The 162nd Wing is located at Tucson International Airport, and we train both American and international pilots,” Roberts said.
The pilot was flying an F-16 belonging to the Iraqi Air Force, according to a release Roberts issued. The U.S. Air Force is training Iraqi pilots in F-16 fighters at the request of the Iraqi government.
In 2015, an Iraqi pilot, flying an Iraqi aircraft, was killed in a crash near Douglas during a training mission with the 162nd Wing.
Graham County Sheriff’s Office provided security around the crash site. Pima and Fort Thomas Rescue teams were initially called out to assist.
This story was edited at 8:55 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, with comments from a 162nd Wing spokesperson.
Lovely, this means we have Iraqis flying F-16s, over American citizens. I saw Saudis were in Red Flag last month too.
Everyone feel good about this?
do we keep Iraqi owned F-16s in the U.S. ?
What happens if one of them goes jihadi all of a sudden?
The F-16 is a fantastic aircraft but for a nation like Iraq it costs too much to fly.
every hour certainly costs probably 10 or $20,000 at least and there is no way that they are going to maintain those sophisticated aircraft by themselves.
it’s famous in the Middle East, they don’t repair anything at all.
they are better off with the Super Tucano or something like that.
great...you know the best ones troll FR for the best ideas....
The AZ National Guard based at Tucson International is the designated training center for foreign F-16 pilots.
The OP article is a bit old, and the pilot has been identified -
The link also says that the F-16 was Iraqi owned.
I just Googled it:
it costs $22,000 per flight hour for a single f-16c.
thanks. that’s a little more detail.
It seems goofy for the Iraqis to fly their F16s to Arizona from Iraq 7500 miles( 3 in flight refuels ?) and back.
hence my question.
That’s islamophobic! Izlam is a religion of pies!
great...you know the best ones troll FR for the best ideas....
>><<
You’ve got to be kidding.
Our muzzies are not expected to turn jihadi. They are all vetted like Nadabama. /s
arg...did i really need a sarcasm tag ?
I’m not sure what the problem is. Iraq needs a military strong enough to stop ISIS. That’s surely in the our strong interest. One of the mistakes that lead to ISIS is that Democrats in CONgress held up sales of aircraft to the Iraqi military. If you remember, when ISIS swept into Iraq from Syria, Iraq had NO combat aircraft at all and had to jury rig light aircraft to fire Hellfire missiles. Iraq needs an air force.
You can’t think of the problem of iraqis, Afghans and Saudis, flying in fighter bombers over the USA?
Real bright. Fyi, it’s almost 9/11.
For extra background you might ask a lot of our military men who were murdered by so-called friendly forces in the last couple of years what problems they might expect from our allies.
Sorry. I’ve seen people here make similar comments and they were serious. They think there are no other conservative sites out there and exaggerate the influence of FR.
wait, what ? there’s other conservative sites ? and we aren’t in a hologram ?
Lol.
Welcome Home, Marine. We {101st Airborne} took over some of I Corps from you guys.
I read a book that told Pakis training on F-16s in San Diego attacked a nuclear power plant in SoCal. The storyline must be all too real.
I don’t think they’d be flying around the world.
They’d probably be loaded on some large cargo plane (C-5) or ship.
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