Posted on 03/30/2006 6:34:05 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
An F-16 fighter jet piloted out of Hill Air Force Base crashed in Carrington Bay in the Great Salt Lake Thursday afternoon.
Base officials said the jet, from the 388th Fighter Wing's 421st Fighter Squadron, went down at 2:11 p.m., approximately 30 miles west of Hill Air Force Base. The pilot is said to have ejected safely, though was reportedly taken to a local hospital.
Public safety officials reported that the plane came down in Carrington Bay, in the Great Salt Lake.
The aircraft was conducting a close-air support training mission over the northern Utah Test and Training Range.
An emergency response team from Hill Air Force Base will respond to the crash location and a board of officers will investigate the causes of the crash, the Air Force reported.
The crash was at least the second involving a U.S. Air Force Fighting Falcon this month. U.S. Navy divers Wednesday were searching the ocean floor, about 25 miles off South Korea's west coast, in a bid to recover a F-16 that crashed there March 14, according to Stars and Stripes. That pilot also safely ejected.
The F-16, a single-seat fighter aircraft, is capable of flying more than 1550 miles per hour and can make turns withstanding up to nine times the force of gravity.
Geez.... who was shooting at you guys!
Haha, more of a case of self afflicted wounds imo. I think the vast majority of them were due to "stray voltage" from wiring harnesses, etc. The stray voltages would travel throughout the aircraft and on occasion the flight contols, which resulted in most of the crashes. I can't remember how many pilots died but most of them got out thankfully.
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