Damaged F-15E has to divert TWICE after Aerial refuelling accident with KC-46 (crazy incident)

[@antoineroquentin2297]

civil aviation emergency: "Do you have dangerous goods onboard?" - "yes, notebook batteries :(" Military emergency: "... live missiles."

[@Flight_Follower]

Haha yeah he was enforcing the presidential TFR so yeah

[@ItsEricAZ]

This brings new meaning to having a bad day! Refueling accident, hydraulic failures, running on fumes, broke cable, missed cable and a divert too. Oh, boy!

[@markkirker6642]

WOW! Broke both cables! Great job by ATC and the pilot for getting that plane on the ground safely

[@iTz_JLAR]

Actually if you listen to the audio. The 1st cable broke. He missed the 2nd cable attempt. And was running on fumes when he diverted to Lemoore.

[@josh3771]

What a rough day for that pilot, glad all the crews made it back safe

[@Flight_Follower]

Us too!

[@andrewtuegel7407]

Fresno controllers were doing some great, great work, especially the tower frequency controller. Hope they get recognized for their outstanding efforts.

[@Flight_Follower]

You and me both!

[@jneill]

Extremely impressive ATC.

[@silencerstudent9381]

That second break u hear him finally start to lose his cool demeanor

[@Flight_Follower]

Yeah “give me a vector” thats that one time he seemed to panic a bit.. but gained his composure pretty quickly after that

[@CramcrumBrewbringer]

Because military pilots are so well trained for emergencies… Multiple failures will shake up even the best but he handled it perfectly fine!

[@LNgKhoi]

He nearly *snapped* *runs*

[@tomwilson1006]

@Flight_Follower This was an E-model and not a C?

[@SyntaxError0287]

definitely needed new pants that day

[@ohrazda1956]

Noble 42 presents "Pilot Cool". I break a :30 minute Bingo and get a cold feeling. Noble 42 is squeezing :08 and tries multiple approaches while snapping cables.

[@bufe101]

Sounds like an amazing job from the pilot and ATC. Great comms, only essential info.

[@chenwong1036]

You have to be cool headed with nerves of steel to fly around with 10 minutes of remainng fuel, live missiles on board and hydraulic brake issues...

[@SpaceGeek321]

I mean he could still punch out but still nobody wants that paperwork

[@FullSendPrecision]

GOT EM ON THE FISHING EQUIPMENT - lol

[@ImpendingJoker]

@1:14 Noble 4-2 says, Gear Down, Hook Down. Not HUD Down.

[@MisterIvyMike]

👨‍💻Noble 4-2, Do you really wanna decelerate with your HUD down instead of your hook? 👨‍✈️Affirmative, will use the HUD...

[@Flight_Follower]

Sorry about that guys Thanks for correcting

[@mmmdawe]

Lol I thought that this is some nomenclature for setting up HUD for landing

[@timothy____1989]

@@Flight_Followerhe also says “Noble 42’s base…” not “space” in that transmission

[@C420sailor]

1:15 is “base” not “space” and 2:05 “unintelligible” is “E-28 bidirectional [arresting gear]”

[@dayeightfloyd5495]

Excellent atc. Don’t hear that very often.

[@DisandDat-ht5os]

These guys have a part time job waiting in retirement as auctioneers, holy crap

[@Glassed_in_Nature]

What’s “hung” mean when he’s referring to the missiles?

[@Flight_Follower]

a missile is considered hung if it malfunctions or fails to release after an aircraft attempts to release it

[@harveywallbanger3123]

what he said. hung ordnance of any kind is extremely dangerous because you don't know if it's armed itself or intends to fall off the plane when your wheels hit the runway.

[@AN-12345]

Shortened way of "hang fire" where the missile was fired but did not ignite the propellant. The risk in that is the unpredictable nature of it maybe going off from the impact of landing.

[@davestevens4193]

Pretty good pucker Factor

[@alpha_echo_diDi]

What would maverick do?

[@Modest-o2l]

"Talk to me Goose"

[@severomagiusto4737]

Gosh, they truly landed on fumes

[@cmkpspg]

i was at the Fresno VA hospital helping my elderly Air force vet landlord get his cataract surgery done. And my wife and i were outside and we could hear and then see these 2 F-15E's go low-ish overhead at definitely less than 10 thousand feet (Probably guessing like 6 to 7k more like they were low enough you could see the markings but not read them!) They weren't probably doing more than 200 to 250 knots, and Then the next day we see in the news that it was "just a hydraulic failure" that caused it, no mention of an Air Tanker! That's crazy that all this occurred at that time!

[@Flight_Follower]

Technically they were right about the hydraulic failure haha Thanks for your comment!

[@ArghIsThisHandleTaken]

Anyone know the tail for the F-15? It could have been out of Mountain Home where I was a crew chief on 15’s.

[@craig_sez8534]

Broke both cables,diverts twice hhhmmm that low fuel musta been alot more than pilot thought cause it sure as hell took him a long freakin ways..

[@samhine4263]

Absolutely great work from ATC!

[@itsUncleMonK]

Lemoore is where I grew up born and raised in the nickle nickle nine. Scary to see this living over here in Niagara Falls, NY now... glad those boys made it home safe.

[@Tiax776]

00:56 Why you gotta dis the missiles like that. They're growers not showers.

[@wokeupandsmellthecoffee214]

what do they mean when they said the missiles are not hung just live ? what is 'not hung' ?

[@MichaelOnines]

A hung missile is one you attempted to fire, but it didn't release. Its' been given an instruction to go hot and failed for some reason. Could be just barely still on the rack, might have armed the detonator, etc. Live ordnance is able to be fired, pins have been pulled so it is ready to fire, but hasn't malfunctioned. "Hung" adds complexity because you don't know what the missile is doing.

[@stevel8743]

Why’d he need the cable? Runway too short?

[@Flight_Follower]

He got issues with his hydraulic

[@RainbowManification]

Hydraulic leak = no wheel brakes

[@crewdawg16]

No brakes following the air borne incident

[@L8nitedave]

The pilots call sign is now "rosana anna danna"

[@john-bloss]

Great job by the tower controller. Wonder if he’s ex-Navy. Kinda sounded like it.

[@arianaseimas250]

Yes he is prior Navy controller, and a prior controller from Lemoore- that’s how he knew the equipment capability

[@kevinhamlin1561]

@@arianaseimas250 This makes a ton of sense, and having a F-15 guard unit there too. Because man that ATC not only did one hell of a job, but also knew the lingo and how to communicate to those pilots. He made a huge difference in this situation, as others have said, I hope he gets recognized for this.

[@AguadillaCGN]

what is the meaning of a hung missile

[@Flight_Follower]

a missile is considered hung if it malfunctions or fails to release after an aircraft attempts to release it

[@ai-aniverse]

thumbs up to ATC

[@djurispijker3519]

Anyone know what "Angel 3.7" is?

[@nobodysbusiness4130]

3700 feet

[@rudi_ghuliani]

Cherubs are units of 100ft used between 0 and 900ft; angels are increments of 1000ft.

[@douglasmckay6026]

Even across the services we have a ton of comm that’s non standard. Anyone else non mil on freq may not have known what that comm meant, so it’s useless comm. Comm should increase everyone’s SA. Navy /MC do check in for boat ops with LSO with state with fuel calls as a decimal, but Angels 3.7 is non standard……imho

[@douglasmckay6026]

If he just said his altitude in a standard way, then it would have helped the Strike Eagle guy too. But maybe the Hornet guy was talking fuel… which is further useless comm- and not pertinent to ATC at that moment!😅 Fishing Gear comm is a bit crappy also. RDR contact or sensor contact would have helped all concerned… F15E guy may not have known what Fishing gear was.

[@Hurricane2k8]

@@douglasmckay6026 Angels for altitude is standard NATO brevity code, so not only will all US mil aviators understand it, regardless of service, but it would also be understood in all allied nations.

[@SamuelTheENTP]

If these guys were out over the ocean by Santa Barbara and they had an issue, why did they go all the way up to Fresno to land? That's more than a flea hop. More close by there's Edwards and Vandenburg, each with extremely long runways. Obviously there was some logical reason but I'm curious what it was.

[@shiftyKindaGuy]

Fresno has an F-15 squadron so able to handle the repairs there better

[@EyeMWing]

​@@shiftyKindaGuy Indeed, the plane was likely *from* Fresno. I don't see any arrester cables at Vandenberg, and it's significantly less likely Space Force firefighting would have been prepared for an armed combat aircraft. No cables at Palmdale/Plant 42. The big runway at Edwards has 'em, but the actual pavement length is only a bit longer than Lemoore, and you can't just use the lakebed without advance prep. Smart move was to try to go home to Fresno, but should probably have taken the divert to Lemoore after the first bolter, because if you snap the navy's cable too you've got an extra mile of runway to slow down aerodynamically on, and the runway runs off into a field instead of an urban highway like in Fresno. Plus, the tanker probably had to get on the ground somewhere.

[@eulenspeigel]

Callsign for the hornets is jury, not jerry

[@Flight_Follower]

Sorry about that Thanks for correcting the mistake

[@ElliottHurst]

I have to ask, why does an f18 escort help anything

[@WhiskyCardinalWes]

If the F-15 pilots had to eject, one F-18 would circle the chutes and would direct emergency services to them; one F-18 would follow the F-15 until it impacted and then direct emergency services to the impact site.

[@PatFarra-t5z]

Gotta have brass balls to do what these guys do.

[@stephengandy4685]

Why did he need to be escorted?

[@biffhenderson1144]

Male bonding.

[@Flight_Follower]

To guide him all the way through to landing i guess

[@wadesaxton6079]

He didn’t but he wanted an external inspection of his aircraft from another pilot, also Lemoore is a Navy field and he might not have been familiar with it and its location/layout.

[@harveywallbanger3123]

Once they realized he was in trouble the Navy lent a hand however they could. Obviously nobody wanted to see an F15 having to punch out with live missiles over Fresno, CA. The civilian ATC was a total professional as well.

[@whatilearnttoday5295]

They were looking to have planes visually inspect, when none were available they went to the flyby of bravo taxiway. Then planes arrive. So they hang out.

[@j134679]

That's... a lot of talking for tower

[@dayeightfloyd5495]

Best atc I’ve heard in a long time.

[@harveywallbanger3123]

@@dayeightfloyd5495 Agreed, he nailed it.

[@douglasmckay6026]

@@harveywallbanger3123 hmm- slightly disagree, on the amount of comm front, but his basics on offering vector/ BRA and runway options was first class. V proactive though and definitely ‘on the team’. Not a criticism perhaps just a wee bit less comm. Maybe ‘all RWYs available, cables are here/here and here/ let me know what you need’…. Then be quiet…?

[@C.D.-tz6sk]

F-15 using cables???

[@WhiskEE]

they have emergency hooks onboad for just this reason.

[@C.D.-tz6sk]

@@WhiskEE I didn't know!!! Interesting!

[@brandspro]

@@C.D.-tz6skpretty much every fighter has a hook.

[@C.D.-tz6sk]

@@brandspro Didn't know the Airforce fighters did. Thanks! Geeze and I had a AF Pilot slot back in the 80's! Long time ago.

[@BirdDog.]

But why did he need the hook to land? That runway was long enough

[@LewisPBrown690]

Why would you go to a civilian airport (FAT) when a military field (Lemoore) was so close. The Navy is much better equipped to handle this type of situation. I know that FAT has guard units, but Lemoore should have the first choice.

[@MichaelOnines]

Air Guard F-15's fly out of Fresno.

[@SuperMyacc]

Overwatch copies all.

[@slipperyslope3912]

Crashed into fuel tanker, snapped 2 cables. Did this pilot even have a license? 🤣

[@_Zaid]

It's the KC-46, those have been having all sorts of issues, wouldn't be so quick to blame the pilot Cables can snap if they're just worn out

[@user-kl8bq3gu6f]

No evidence of any kind that this fighter crashed in any way, shape, or form. Cables snap.

[@EstorilEm]

@@_Zaid Probably one of the largest/heaviest aircraft with a hook that those runways have seen, plus it's likely got a higher approach speed than normal, and has weapons onboard (heavier) then again it had basically zero fuel so...

[@stevel8743]

Why’d he need the cable? Runway too short?

[@Cragified]

Combat load. Losing hydraulics. He had ord. and hydraulics damage means potential diminished braking and needing to maintain a higher flight speed so control authority isn't lost. He was having to land hot and heavy and might have no brakes hence the desire for the emergency arrestor.

[@molotovEOD]

@@Cragifiedthank you for that explanation.

[@williambush7971]

No brakes

[@danielh1708]

Just the hydraulic issue. He wasn't landing "hot and heavy" as the first commenter mentioned. LoL

[@jemand8462]

@@danielh1708 "just" hydraulic? that means no flaps, no speed brakes, possibly not even a lot of brakes or none at all. He was actually told by ATC to reduce speed from 180 - what exactly is NOT hot and heavy with this?