From the canopy, you can see that it was a D-model that carries two aircrew.
Posted on 09/05/2017 7:32:42 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
UPDATE: According to media reports in the area, the Graham County Sheriff has confirmed the pilot has died.
News 4 Tucson has reached out to the Graham County Sheriff's Office to confirm this information, but has not hear back.
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An F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed 20 miles northwest of Safford on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
The F-16 is based out of the Arizona Air National Guard's 162nd Wing located in Tucson.
Rescue efforts are underway.
The status of the pilot is not known at this time.
From the canopy, you can see that it was a D-model that carries two aircrew.
I’m surprised by the crater... More used to the “smear” effect you get from commercial airlines. Guess he went in nose-first, straight down?
Oxygen deprivation? I wonder, since that has been killing pilots in advanced fighters for awhile.
It seems to be a jet that hasn’t had the AutoGCAS upgrade yet.
The shape of that canopy is of the single seat versions. The D model has more canopy behind the brace and does not slope up to the teardrop shape
Only the D has the mid-canopy brace. All single seat variants of the F-16 have a single piece canopy with no brace except at the rear.
Boy, it sure looks like he dug a high speed hole, nose down straight in.
Just search, Google, Startpage, etc... F-16 and click the image button. You will see the brace behind the ejection seat on the single seat versions.
Hov many souls aboard? Very sad.
Correct. Behind the seat at the hinge point. The brace in the picture is at mid-canopy. This is unique to the D model.
Sad. RIP.
You can see the exact location by the TFR -
https://skyvector.com/?ll=32.958622646788896,-109.95251732830196&chart=25&zoom=4
It is inside the edge of the Jackal Low MOA (Military Operating Area) so I wonder if low level dogfighting was involved. The area is from 100 ft AGL to 11,000 ft.
Since the F-16 was from Tucson ANG it probably had a foreign pilot on board.
Prayers for the family.
I spent waaay to many days on the Nellis Range complex cleaning up aircraft parts. The worst was one on the edge of Death Valley - and F-4G went down after running out of air doing ACMR. All we found were pieces of the crew....
Few understand the dangers of “training” because to win, you have to train like you’re going to fight..
Years ago I was on a ranch in that area and two military jets came through one behind the other flying really low. The guy that lived there said they did it all the time, part of their training. As you can see in the picture it is rugged and they were following the shape of the ground, staying very low. I just wonder if they were doing something like that. I have to say it was scary for me, they flew right over us and seemed so close. I really love seeing them, it really does make me sleep better at night to know they and the rest of the military too of course are out there doing their jobs to keep us safe.
Prayers out to family and friends of this pilot, may he rest in peace and may his family and he know how grateful we are for his service.
Yes, Prayers for All involved.
Thank You for Your Service doing a not so easy, gruesome and grueling task. I’m sure it’s not an easy one.
(((Ping)))
No, that’s a D-Model canopy. I’ve worked Egress on this jet. Another way you can tell: you can see where the canopy actuator attaches under the center arch. The C-model has a completely different canopy actuator with a completely different attach point in a different location.
F-16C:
F-16D:
In all fairness to you, the ejected canopy is damaged. It’s missing framing on the aft end, the aft canopy arch is missing, and the transparency is rolled inward so that it looks like there’s less canopy back there than there really is.
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