F-16 Loss of Electrical Power and Ejection (HUD Footage)

[@WhatYouHaventSeen]

KZbin has decided to demonetize videos of accidents that show "a strong moment of impact," regardless of context. I produce this channel because I believe that transportation safety is enhanced through transparent and accessible disclosures of the facts. If you find value in this channel's content, please consider supporting my work by clicking "Join" and becoming a channel member today. There is no difference in perks between membership levels; join at a level that is comfortable for you. Rather than overcommitting, my promise to members is that I will continue to produce this channel's unparalleled content, just as I have for the better part of a decade. You don't have to do anything, and this channel is not going anywhere. I appreciate you all. You make this channel possible. The complete AIB report for this accident is available at rwp.yt/f16cj

[@xisotopex]

time to move to rumble

[@2011SoxMD36]

I was ON the Crash Recovery team for this and I had never seen any of this footage. Not sure how you got it, but I thank you. Glad Capt Wilson got out safe, it took us 20 days to clear the site, he was back flying in nine.

[@paradox11111111]

Very cool, thanks for sharing

[@ryobibattery]

Great so he can crash another plane

[@DVA5656]

Don't drop names here. you fuckn kidding me?

[@fritzd2116]

Glad to hear the pilot was fine and back to flying!

[@jessesteeltown]

@@DVA5656 its readily available info. nothing anybody didnt know with a simple google search lol

[@Mandy7D7]

It's a real bummer losing an F-16 but I'm happy to hear the airmen made it out safely.

[@MADmosche]

*airman, singular.

[@richardbriscoe8563]

The F-16 has a good seat.

[@jumpingjeffflash9946]

I was at Spangdahlem when we lost a brand new F-16 on its ferry flight, crashing in New York. It was deteriorating weather and the plane ran out of gas. it had like 20 hours on the airframe.

[@networkedperson]

@@jumpingjeffflash9946 well I'm sure there's a civilian wedding somewhere that's thankful it won't get bombed by the lost asset

[@paulcooper8818]

A tough situation, luckily no one hurt

[@Zerbey]

Tough decision, but he made the right call and will live to fly another day.

[@MS-wj1cx]

Lots of f-16 Couch pilots here

[@bernardanderson3758]

Flights during IFR Conditions flights become critical when you lose all your availability Avionics and the F-16 can be replaced and the Airforce Pilot survived this and his training that save him .

[@cptkirkpyro5656]

the military would rather replace a person than equipment. thats just a simple fact and they make it very clear to you.

[@muffinman3669]

@@cptkirkpyro5656 the air force would most definitely not replace a pilot than equipment. If youre talking about the high end equipment, accidents almost never happen because they are top of the line pilots

[@jmp.t28b99]

These aircraft have dedicated emergency standby instruments with independent power source (battery). This is practiced in the SIM. Would like to know why those failed.

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@jmp.t28b99 They most likely did not. Pilot error. Edit: just read the safety report. All standby equipment was normal. Even the primary airspeed and altitude instruments were normal.😮

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@muffinman3669 Class A mishaps are at an all time high in the Air Force.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Wow, ejecting IMC must be quite a thing, and VERY glad aircraft went down in unpopulated woods. That was a tall tree the chute was up in.

[@av8tore71]

Worse time to have problems is when you fly into IMC especially when one loses instruments. You have no artificial horizon, VSI, airspeed indicator. At least pilot is alive to fly another day

[@nattybumppo4151]

He had an artificial horizon on his standby ADI that was operating normally. He also has speed and altitude available.

[@xisotopex]

@@nattybumppo4151 were those guaranteed to be reliable no matter the situation? is it an analog system or some type of redundancy separate from the other instrument failures? too many stories of aircraft with the physical ability to keep flying either being flown into the ground or into a stall...

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@xisotopex Yes. They are a separate system. The chances of both failing at the same time is basically zero percent. The report said the standbys were functioning properly. The pilot was simply unable to transition to standbys.

[@xisotopex]

@@nattybumppo4151 wouldnt the standbys be right in front of his face? as available outside of his HUD within his very field of vision? something someone would be able to acquire within milliseconds?

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@xisotopex I don’t know where the standbys are located on an F-16 dash but more or less yes.

[@MK-tt5xy]

"2's Ejecting." Man real life is just like DCS!

[@jumpingjeffflash9946]

i was stationed at Spangdahlem AB in 1993, 23rd FS; I was a crew chief there and received those block 50's brand new from GD in 93 into 94. I lived in Orenhofen so this wasn't too far away from there.

[@tarlton2]

At one point he came 1-2 seconds away from slamming into the ground and pulled up hard moments before impact. Im sure that did not help his mental state

[@FancyPantsOnFire]

Spent 10 years flying these out of Spangdahlem. Bet years of my life. Trying to restart the main mission computer (MMC) as we hear in the video mid flight and still getting no symbology in the HUD would be scary

[@flymachine]

You continue to lead the way in sourcing and showing previously 'unseen' footage

[@adb012]

"the pilot to become spatially disoriented at low altitude and in IMC ... [...] ... following two instances of visually acquiring trees below the 500-foot ceiling, the [pilot] successfully [ejected]" The pilot is alive by miracle!

[@Supersonicff-dw6bs]

As soon as the failure started, he immediately lost all awareness of altitude. Watch starting at 3:29. He went from about 4,400, up to 4,700, then quickly down to 3,140 and nearly hitting the trees. Yanked back and climbed and ejected as well as nearly stalling. Had he declared an emergency and just focused on climbing above the clouds he could have troubleshoot the issue or diverted to an airport with non-IFR conditions. He had a wingman to help out. Sure appears like he lost focus and panicked and ejected. Definitely needs some more emergency training in the sim to build confidence.

[@jcheck6]

Tops were at 15,000'....think they took spacing on t/o so no rejoins until on top.

[@Supersonicff-dw6bs]

@@jcheck6 I wasn't implying they join up before they were VFR. He had non-automated guages like an altimeter to use to keep climbing when his electronic HUD failed. He needed to focus on getting to clear air before doing any troubleshooting or messing with the HUD. He nearly killed himself by letting himself get distracted when he only had a partial failure. The aircraft was flyable as it was.

[@Renato.Stiefenhofer.747driver]

You are probably right, but... in IMC, close to the ground at fairly high speed, it's time to make a selfish decision. Capt Wilson did the right thing. There are thousands of F-16, but only one Captain Wilson family... The fact that he was flying again (less than two weeks later?) shows the professional view of the USAF. The learning effect is enormous. Saving his life was priceless. My five cents from the comfortable seat in VMC.

[@jcheck6]

@@Supersonicff-dw6bs Yeah, I know as we had the same "peanut" gauge on the F-4.

[@flyingcaba5874]

Flying on instruments is not a trivial thing to do. Flying on instruments that give you mismatching information without a failure indication while near the ground at low level in a high performance aircraft ....no, I don´t want to be in that position. I´m sure that guy was and is fine to fly on the standby horizon alone, but that was not the case here. He lived, so it definitely was not a wrong decision to bail out.

[@Dog.soldier1950]

This was a 30 year old AC. The airman was worth far more than the AC. I would guess this was effectively worth very little

[@jumpingjeffflash9946]

I was at Spangdahlem when we got those brand new from the factory.

[@Spyke-lz2hl]

Why couldn’t he fly the stby instruments? Now, I think I heard him say “the round dials are frozen, 2’s ejecting.”

[@pinkdoughnut869]

Someone told him to stay on round dials. He was spatial d. Lost control.

[@nattybumppo4151]

Yeah sounds like his scan broke down. Edit: after reading the safety report, he was unable to transition fully to the standby instruments. He just didn’t have the skill to make it happen. No worries, the Air Force is hemorrhaging pilots so he gets to keep his job!

[@jockob1671]

@@nattybumppo4151 I bet the reason they're hemorrhaging pilots is the AF is getting so woke.

[@Spyke-lz2hl]

@@nattybumppo4151 That’s what I was trying to figure out, why he couldn’t do that, even find straight and level or anything. Probably has to do with overall experience level too, these guys are really low time as far as overall experience, but they can follow instructions really well and get ordinance etc where it needs to be.

[@Spyke-lz2hl]

@@pinkdoughnut869 I’m aware of spatial d, but that’s where you’ve got to overcome your feelings and focus hard. I was wondering why he wasn’t able to do it.

[@geddon436]

So, Will general dynamics build a new one, or will Air Force pull one from davis-mothan?

[@ThisIzzNotATest]

GD will certainly not be involved, whatever happens.

[@theotherotherwhitemeat22]

That is a great question.. There have been alot of f-16 crashes this year. My guess would be D-M.

[@that_drone_guy]

so conflicting info from standby and primary systems, electrical failure, trees and low altitude, clouds and spatial disorientation caused the crash? engine still fine?

[@trevornoah5926]

I can’t imagine crashing a multi million dollar aircraft. No matter the circumstances, it has to feel absolutely devastating.

[@bretthepler722]

Yeah it wasn’t his fault at all it could killed him if he hadn’t.

[@ThisIzzNotATest]

Lockheed Martin doesn't mind, I'm sure. "Crash 'em all, we'll make more!"

[@donraptor6156]

Where do you get that Idea From? I personally have broken a few hundred Million $$$ worth of them! No sadness here!

[@noonehere1793]

There is nothing worse than having to jettison your aircraft…..

[@peter5.056]

i could think of a few less desirable options....oh my, yes.

[@Acrowat40]

Looked like IMC but still, you would have thought there are standby instruments to find somewhere with VMC? I guess electrical issues could affect a lot more than just instrument in a FBW aircraft thou...

[@lebojay]

There are standby instruments. Not sure why they weren’t sufficient.

[@nattybumppo4151]

He had a standby ADI and also altitude and airspeed. That’s all he needed to recover. He was unable to because of a lack of skill and expertise unfortunately. The AF is at an all time high in Class A mishaps due to lack of training and experience.

[@thatsfunny7729]

Hard to say without much more info but as a pilot myself if you're in full IMC at low altitude moving as fast as the aircraft do, I could see how losing half your cluster could be a real clincher. In a split second you have to make a decision whether you're punching out or not and it would be difficult to tell which set of instruments is malfuctioning and which set isn't, if they aren't all malfuctioning and remember, you can't trust your body to tell you what the plane is doing when you can't see outside. I think that ejection was the safest bet for the pilot and I highly doubt this was an inexperienced pilot issue. There's specific protocol for these types of situations and he had to make a decision NOW. Freezing and working out the problem a couple thousand feet off the deck in full IMC at over 300mph is a good way to auger in and out happens fast. It would've taken him 2-3 seconds to hit if he had been in an unusual attitude. Better to get away if you aren't sure what your real attitude is. The USAF can buy another plane, but you can't buy another life. I'm the end, even if you're wrong, better to walk away with an ass chewing alive than second guess yourself and ride the plane into the dirt. I see no problem with this call.

[@LaggerSVK]

@@nattybumppo4151 read the description please. The primary instrumentation failed but this wasnt properly indicated for some reason. So the pilot had two sets of data to choose from and maybe thats not the situation you would like to be in when split seconds are separating you from death. In a different circumstances he would have time and altitude to figure out what was going on. Here it was die or live.

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@LaggerSVK Saying he had two sets of data to choose from is a bit misleading. Only 1 instrument in his cockpit was providing incorrect data(initially), and that was his primary ADI. The rest were either blank or operating normally. And the pilot himself from his testimony understood that it was frozen and unreliable. Here is a list of Instruments that were working correctly: - Primary Airspeed Indicator - Primary Altitude Indicator - Standby Attitude Indicator - Engine Instruments With these instruments, any qualified AF pilot should have been able to climb the 15,000 feet to get above the weather. I don’t fault the pilot for punching out. He understood he did not possess the skill/training needed to survive the situation. I blame the AF.

[@brsrc759]

Wow! How was there not a huge Fireball!?

[@MattyEngland]

Military grade fuel tanks. Self sealing

[@jochenheiden]

When the F-16 that crashed into a warehouse across from my base a couple years came down, there was no explosion either. They don’t always explode! This was at March AFB that I’m talking about.

[@brsrc759]

@@MattyEngland cool thanks for the info man! 😎🤙🏼

[@hinz1]

Wet air, wet everything, low temperatures, so fuel doesn't vaporize and ignite that easily.

[@MattyEngland]

@@brsrc759 no worries 👍👍

[@user-pe1ns8bd6j]

Scary stuff when he lost his instruments and transmitted spatial disorientation

[@hadleymanmusic]

Goddamn hubble connectors

[@gerrycarmichael1391]

I find myself somewhat confused. Were the round gauges still working or did they fail as well? I don't mean to jump to conclusions but was that dude that much of a hud cripple that he couldn't go back on the conventional instruments? Instead opting for the needle, speed and rip chord let down? If so wow.

[@2011SoxMD36]

They also failed. They froze and as such were unreliable.

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@2011SoxMD36 how do you know they failed? Edit: they didn’t fail. I just read the safety report.

[@nattybumppo4151]

I just read the safety report. All standby instrumentation was normal. He was unable to transition to standby instruments due to lack or skill/training.

[@2011SoxMD36]

@@nattybumppo4151 I was there... also I have the report, I've read it multiple times, among other lines supporting a failure include: "Additionally, his primary ADI, SAI, and EHSI were not responding as expected when he made flight control inputs" While I concede we were all relatively suspect of it, avionics specialists never really could explain how the pneumatic-based round dials would fail and did think that nerves and fear played a role, but the oversimplification of it was that a low ceiling mixed with instruments that at worst failed, at best were reacting in a way he couldn't trust led to the decision. I'm not sure if you somehow got a more detailed copy of the report than I have, but if you do I'd love to see it. This incident was a major moment in my career and life to this point so I am happy to track anything further that comes out.

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@2011SoxMD36 Sounds like the same one. I’m not talking about his primary instrumentation. The report says that failed. The STANDBY instrumentation the report says was operating normally. He was unable to transition to them fully like he should have. He was unable to transition to them due to lack of skill/training. I blame the Air Force completely.

[@TonVerkleijT3]

At 4:22 I see a map on which is drawn crash site ECP1 and crash site ECP2, was this the same plane?

[@FreedomLatte1]

Those are just entry control points along a dirt road to the debris field

[@kream926]

glad everyone is alive, but, loss of HUD = eject in the millitary??

[@hinz1]

Warhawks => Treekillers

[@xn40sarethebest]

Which is better? Human lives or trees? I think we all know it's humans...

[@peter5.056]

That blue screen reminds me of when I accidentally took a double dose of an antidepressant and started tripping balls. When I went outside, the sky was blue, and I remember looking up at it, and thinking that reality had crashed, and then I fainted in my front yard, waking an hour later, dizzy but okay.

[@danilodistefanis5990]

What a f a. G lol. Only a double dose made you trip? 😂

[@aileronhelicopters]

I bought anti depressants and because depression was too high, I decided to chew them (because my mom used to tell me that when you chew Panadol you heal fast) ..... After chewing antidepressants, It was one of my worst mouth pains I've ever felt.. I spent 3 weeks unable to taste even honey or candy...

[@peter5.056]

@@aileronhelicopters omg

[@Silo-Ren]

That breathing was a little creepy.

[@bernardanderson3758]

When you are in a situation losing all electrical power you have to act now Eject !,, Eject!,,,

[@nattybumppo4151]

He didn’t lose all electrical power. He only lost his MFDs, hud, and primary ADI.

[@duncandmcgrath6290]

No HUD ? I quit , who's coming with me ?

[@auca]

tunguska

[@michelemcguire8995]

Bummer

[@yoopernow]

The keyboard warriors are busy with this one. Know-nothing, do-nothings...

[@nattybumppo4151]

You mean simply asking why an F-16 fighter pilot wasn’t able to use his standby instruments?

[@paigewilson7893]

Agreed. The trolls have nothing constructive to add or say. I am just glad both were able to eject safely.

[@daves2552]

For asking questions?

[@paigewilson7893]

@@nattybumppo4151 READ THE REPORT

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@paigewilson7893 I did. What’s your point!

[@mudchair16]

Invaders

[@momsterzz]

It so confusing, why is their callsign Warthog??

[@MsPanther]

Warhawk

[@737Maxter]

Hey guys, of course this pilot knew how to read and fly on standby instruments. They train for it and have check rides every year. I am sure there was a reason for the ejection. As far as the taxpayer and financial comments.......that's just pure lack of intelligence and just pure trolling. At least this guy had to option to eject. Hundreds of pilots have died during spatial disorientation events. This is not a joke or a time to make Laim comments.

[@nattybumppo4151]

Go read the safety report my friend. He had full standby instrumentation. He was unable to transition to these instruments because of lack of skill/training.

[@737Maxter]

@@nattybumppo4151 Fair enough, but I still don’t agree with all the comments about how it was a waste of money, or how the pilot sucked. We all make mistakes and 25 million is nothing for the US government. It’s like 50 cents for us, or maybe even way less. To me, all that matters is accidents happen and I’m glad the pilot survived and no one was hurt on the ground.

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@737Maxter We can agree that it’s a good thing no one was hurt but at the same time question why the pilot of a $25M airplane wasn’t able to transition to standby instruments that were operating normally. Again this is a systemic problem in the Air Force.

[@emergencylowmaneuvering7350]

He took the easiest route. Fuck the airplane, im not doing the hard work im payed for. Went away from the hard work needed. And yes I have flown multies with partial panel and go down to 300 feet agl. At about 400 hours of flying singles only, i had to ferrry an Aztec to over a big lake 130 miles wide. The day turned to be bad with rain all over. My instrument rating and multi was only a couple of months back. I was dying to fly the aztec, which was a bigger brother of the Piper Apache i tooke my multi a few weeks before. In Colombia 1975.

[@ryobibattery]

Oh no. I don't know how to read instruments. Better eject....

[@nattybumppo4151]

Unfortunately, per the safety report, this is exactly what happened.

[@james94582]

According to the recording he said round dials were frozen... Meaning he didn't have any indication /instruments at all..

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@james94582 Only the primary ADI was frozen. Please read the safety report. All standby instruments were working normally on separate power sources.

[@james94582]

@@nattybumppo4151 I had not seen the link for the final report, now that I have I see where it indicates the standby instruments were still functioning... But can understand that after seeing some conflicting indications and being at the crucial point of flight and especially not know what was correct indications and not... I can understand the choice of safely exiting the aircraft before it wasn't an option (safely for pilot or surrounding factors)... Tough choice to have to make quickly..

[@nattybumppo4151]

@@james94582 As I’ve said on other posts, ultimately I blame the AF. We would expect a fully qualified F-16 pilot to be able to transition to standby instruments. But because of training syllabus slashes and hemorrhaging experienced pilots to the airlines, the AF has no other choice than to fill cockpits with non-proficient pilots. Edit: Oh and also discharging fully qualified and skilled pilots because their religious/philosophical views don’t line up with the AF agenda.

[@michelemcguire8995]

Tax payer $$

[@dwar3479]

That'll never be repaid lol

[@paigewilson7893]

Wow, what a remark. They keep us safe. Maybe just be glad no one was injured. SMH

[@JaZu]

Always loved the whole “tax payers dollars” Guess what, military members pay taxes as well…

[@paigewilson7893]

@@JaZu Thank you. Michele McGuire has obviously never served her country.

[@UnfoundMusic]

@@paigewilson7893 To an extent. Spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on the military industrial complex doesn't keep us "safe". Neither does sending 50 billion to Ukraine or Israel.

[@viennatech]

Watching the HUD of First pilot flying and seems they can’t hold an altitude or speed better than a pre solo Cessna driver. Is this our finest?

[@Smiley1701]

Says the dude comparing a Cessna in VMC with a 4-ship of F-16s taking off in the weather and dealing with a wingman that's spatially disoriented/ejected.

[@jackharper3190]

Surprises mez dude gets disoriented with operable sby instruments. Should practice more on basic flying skills I guess.

[@CAPFlyer]

Instrument mismatch with no fault indications is a helluva hard thing to process at 300 knots and less than 5000 feet in IMC. That's the thing I think most people will miss - there were *no* fault indications on the primary instruments. The pilot had maybe 30 seconds to figure out which ones were reading right and which weren't and get himself good without hitting the ground. Once you get Spatial Disorientation, it takes a lot longer than that to get yourself back right, even with excellent training. I've had partial panel failures in little single-engine airplanes and it takes time to work out which is good and which isn't because the standby can fail too, especially if it's an electrical issue. I'm lucky because I don't fly them more than in nice weather so I can just look outside, but you still get the idea of "man if this happens in the real weather, this would be very bad" when you see it happen before you.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

I just looked up “how to say I have no clue what I’m talking about without saying it” and this came up. Let me guess, you do fine in MS Flight Sim.

[@nonnobissolum]

I believe that he said that the dials were frozen/inop.

[@colinshaw4592]

Jack goes by the name "Maverick" on the weekends...

[@davekoshiol3828]

@@c1ph3rpunk 0

[@Saadbsth]

I think the pilot chickened out

[@saito125]

I think you're clueless .

[@TheInsultInvestor]

2

[@kream926]

glad everyone is alive, but, loss of HUD = eject in the millitary??

[@saito125]

He lost most electrical systems at least partially, not just the HUD. And all that in IMC.