A suspected technical defect almost caused disaster for a Turkish F-16. The Ukrainian fighter jets are also considered to be maintenance-intensive.
Adana – “Some victims are literally beheaded,” wrote Sven-Felix Kellerhoff. The editor of the World was reminiscent of the performance of an Italian aerobatic team as the highlight of the flying day at Ramstein Air Base in August 1988. A pilot of the Frecce Tricolori was too fast, blew up the figure, and aircraft and burning kerosene hit the spectators. This ended in the largest air show disaster to date, writes Kellerhoff. In the southern Turkish city of Adana, a similar catastrophe was apparently brewing, as shown in the photos X (formerly Twitter) becomes recognizable.
The main actress was a US F-16, which is currently supposed to help turn the tide for Ukraine in the fight against Vladimir Putin. A technical defect in the Western fighter jet, which cost up to $75 million, is suspected – one of these jets has already crashed in Ukraine, which makes maintaining the machines a major challenge in order to stand up to Russia.
Like the magazine The War Zone (TWZ) Reportedly, videos show the specially painted Block 30 F-16C in the hands of the Solotürk demo pilot at the Teknofest aerospace and technology festival that lasted almost a week from October 2 in Adana, southern Turkey. At the end of the air show, the pilot reportedly wobbled the wings and then executed a roll over the runway, “but the F-16’s nose dropped alarmingly, leaving the jet pointing upside down toward the ground – and apparently close to it.” the spectator line,” writes TWZ.
F-16 in Luck: Disaster averted “a small number of wingspans” above the ground
The video shows that the stunt is dangerously low before the pilot can pull the plane back up; a precise analysis seems difficult. TWZ A former fighter jet pilot claims to have learned from the recordings that “the distance between the F-16 and the ground at the lowest point appears to be ‘a small number of wingspans’,” as the magazine writes. A “wing span” of the F-16 measures around nine meters.
“We are financially supporting the Ukrainian government to enter into these contracts with private partners to see whether they can keep the aircraft operational in the future.”
Apart from that, in the event of an accident, the machine would have cut through the crowd like a plow without braking. The disaster would have been the second this year – with only a short gap. Like the news agency Reuters reported that the first disaster occurred in August; of all places as part of an air show to mark the 80th anniversary of the landing of the Allied troops in Provence on D-Day.
The pilot of a Fouga Magister fell into the Mediterranean during his demonstration in Lavandou, southern France. Ukraine also experienced a disaster during an air show. 22 years ago, “the worst air show accident in history” is said to have occurred near Lviv Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty has reported. A Sukhoi Su-27 from the “Ukrainian Falcons” aerobatic team is said to have suffered at least one stall on the wings during a stunt in July 2002 and thus got out of control.
Fighter jet with quirks: Unintentional course correction by redirecting the exhaust jet is possible
This led to the crash into the middle of the crowd; according to the magazine Aviation portal 77 visitors, including 28 children, are said to have died as a result, and more than 500 people were injured, some seriously. The accident at the US air force base in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate in August 1988 left around 1,000 injured and 70 people dead, which is why the accident in Ukraine is considered the more serious accident.
The two disasters have one thing in common: they both certainly resulted from pilot errors. In Turkey, a technical error could now be the cause. Like the Turkish aviation portal Tolga Ozbek Reportedly, the machine was said to have been thoroughly examined at the Incirlik air base after its return – for this purpose, experts were sent to Incirlik to also evaluate video images.
Experts on this topic have therefore pointed out that due to a possible malfunction of the F-16’s flight control systems, the aircraft may have initiated an unwanted course correction due to a redirection of the exhaust jet, the magazine writes. This type of influencing the exit angle of the exhaust jet is fundamentally intended to improve the maneuverability of military machines.
Not an isolated case: F-16 crashed near the Grafenwöhr military training area in 2015
The Austrian aviation magazine Austrian Wings reports the incident, however, in a harsher tone. In their opinion, flight safety in Turkey is generally considered problematic – military aviation is also said to be riddled with problems and incidents, the magazine writes: “The Turkish Stars have not been invited to Airpower in Zeltweg for many years. This was never officially explained Austrian Wings However, as we learned from usually well-informed circles, security concerns are said to be the reason,” writes its team of authors.
That being said, the technical glitch on the Turkish F-16 may not be an isolated incident. In August 2015, an F-16CM crashed near the Grafenwöhr military training area in Bavaria without any visible external influences: after about 29 minutes of flight, the pilot noticed a loss of thrust and made five attempts to restart the failed engine. Before the pilot initiated the emergency exit, he steered the aircraft over an uninhabited area, says the accident report.
The ultimate reason was a mechanical break in the housing of the lower ball bearing system of the fuel regulator. According to the report, this material fracture caused a failure of the engine’s primary power control. The interruption of the fuel flow to the engine made it impossible to restart the engine and resulted in a complete loss of power.
Losses predictable: F-16 high maintenance and sensitive to external circumstances
This will be of enormous importance for Ukraine in the war with Vladimir Putin – the F-16 is maintenance-intensive and reacts sensitively to external circumstances. The costs are exploding: Ensuring the operational capability of an F-16 could cost up to five million euros. Per machine. Per year. John Hoehn and William Courtney from the Californian think tank RAND expect this – excluding costs for missiles and weapons. Matt Kiddoo expects that 17 to 18 people, including the pilot, will have to make an F-16 airworthy – for demonstration flights, as he stated in a forum.
For combat operations, the former U.S. Air Force aircraft armament systems craftsman estimates up to 25 forces – combined personnel from logistics, support, maintenance and other professional fields; Instructors included. A challenge that Ukraine apparently has to overcome all alone. It was at the end of August Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that US President Joe Biden’s administration is rejecting a plan to send Americans to Ukraine to maintain F-16 fighter jets. “We are financially supporting the Ukrainian government to enter into these contracts with private partners to see whether they can keep the aircraft operational in the future,” General Onno Eichelsheim said WSJ quoted the Defense Minister of the Netherlands.
Ukraine on its own: No civilian contractors for US maintenance of the F-16
Accordingly, the National Security Council would have nevertheless considered a proposal to send civilian contractors to Ukraine to service F-16 fighter jets and other military weapons, such as that WSJ writes. However, secret services and other security politicians rejected this as too risky – but only for the moment. This should not be seen as a fundamental rejection of this idea, the paper claims to have learned from sources close to the government.
Ultimately, the maintenance of the aircraft is seen as an essential part of Ukraine’s defense capability: Without civilian contractors who maintain the aircraft – for example repairing them and replacing parts – Ukraine will have difficulty keeping the aircraft supplied by the West operational, writes Das journal. The debate is also a reaction to the first crash of an F-16 in Ukraine, which may well have been due to a technical failure of the machine.
Ukraine may have expected too much of itself – at least that’s what Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes, who has since been deposed, faced that last fall New York Times He was also tempted to trivialize his company vehicle – in his opinion, the F-16 was just “a Swiss army knife”. (Karsten Hinzmann)
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