More pics at the source link.
Posted on 08/14/2017 6:36:22 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
A US F/A-18 fighter jet suffering an engine problem crash landed Saturday at Bahrain International Airport and its pilot ejected from the aircraft after it ran off the runway, authorities said.
The pilot escaped unharmed.
The crash disrupted flights to and from the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia that's home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
Images on social media showed the grey fighter jet's nose tipped into the air but largely intact after what the Navy described as an 'uncontrollable' landing.
The F-18 took off from the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier now in the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Bill Urban, a fleet spokesman.
While in flight, the plane suffered an engine malfunction, forcing the pilot to divert, Urban said. The pilot initially tried to land at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, but instead had to divert to the island's commercial airport, Urban said.
'Due to the malfunction, the aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and the pilot ejected from the aircraft as it departed the runway,' the commander said in a statement.
Naval officials began an investigation into the crash and were trying to help the airport resume operations, Urban said.
Bahrain's Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry called the crash landing a 'minor incident' in a statement and said flights resumed at the airport several hours later.
Bahrain hosts 8,000 U.S. troops, mostly sailors attached to a sprawling based called the Naval Support Activity. That base oversees some 20 US and coalition naval vessels in the Gulf providing security and others running anti-piracy patrols.
Bahrain is also home to an under-construction British naval base.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
More pics at the source link.
Bahrain can have bad sand storms. They shovel sand like we shovel snow in Colorado. I was there just after Gulf War 1.
OK pilots, you tell me. Can you safely punch out this low to the ground and not get totally jacked up ?
Yes. Ejection seats account for zero-zero ejections. (Zero altitude, zero speed)
That’s a little embarrassing. The plane seemed fine if she would have stuck with it.
So you can get enough altitude for the chute to deploy and slow decent before you hit the pavement ? Awesome !
Yes, it’s a zero-zero seat. The F-16 pilots are instructed to eject if they’re exiting the runway at or above 60 knots. Once you leave the runway, your control inputs will do absolutely nothing for the path of the jet. It’s much safer to eject, too many pilots choose not to.
I’m wondering why a single engine failure on a twin engine jet results in a crash???
A right engine failure in the F/A-18 results in a loss of several systems (nosewheel steering, brakes) requiring an arrested landing. Unfortunately Manamma (Bahrain airport) does not have arresting gear. I think there’s more to this than just a single engine failure though.
Thanks for the info, interesting. The engineer in me wants to see redundant systems - powered by either engine... But I’m sure being a fighter there are weight, space, and complexity/maintenance priorities too. So I guess there are some single points of failure that can get serious.
This plane is an F-18 but all of Our planes have 0/0 seats these days.
They work because the seat is basically mounted on top of a Mortar Rocket.
NT- See My above Post.
EMB- sorry, I relyplied to the wrong Post
newest member of the Martin-Baker fan club
Yes Sirey Bob
Yeah, maybe the engine had blades flying off that damaged other systems or something like that.
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