Posted on 06/11/2007 3:25:28 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An F-15 fighter jet crashed Monday after colliding in mid-air with another military jet during a training exercise, Air Force officials said. The other jet landed safely, and no one was seriously injured.
The pilot of the F-15C ejected safely and was taken a military hospital, said Airman Jennifer Anton, a spokeswoman at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. The pilot did not have serious injuries, she said.
The pilot of the other jet, an F-16C that landed safely, was uninjured, she said.
It was not immediately clear why the two jets collided at 11:23 a.m. local time during a training exercise about 90 miles east of Fairbanks in Alaska's interior, Anton said. A board of Air Force officers will investigate.
The crash happened at the Pacific Alaska Range Complex, a 60,000-acre training ground.
The $27 million F-15C that crashed was from Langley Air Force Base, Va., and the F-16C was from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
The Alaska Air National Guard took the F-15C pilot to Bassett Army Hospital at Fort Wainwright, also near Fairbanks, said McHugh Pierre, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
The training exercise includes more than 1,400 military members from the U.S., Singapore and Australia. The simulated combat exercise is scheduled to run through June 15, according to Eielson's Web site.
I would like to disagree that the older pilots would be lost in the newer planes; they were very smart and able. If you put them into today's planes, I think they would do a fine job.
My dad was a USMC pilot in the '50s when the Corps was changing from prop to jet planes. They lost a lot of pilots figuring the new technology out.
Not taking anything away from the older pilots, but new tech can be dangerous. At the least they would have to be re-trained extensively.
Some would adapt fine, of course, but I was present when General Welch (CINC-USAF, IIRC) was talking to the Turkish Chief of Staff, who had just completed a check-ride in an F-16, and they were talking about how much more fun the F-100 was...
Given time and the need to adapt, they would, but some will always resist change.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.