F-15 Ejection at BLV outside of St. Louis

Steve Costello

Steve Costello

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
May 24, 2017
Messages
258
Location
St. Louis, MO
Display Name
Display name:
SteveCostello
Last edited:
Weird...photos shows it sitting on the gear. Seat problem maybe, or something with a one line boldface of eject...Will be interesting to see what comes out.
 
Looks like a brand new EX.
 
Craig said:
Weird...photos shows it sitting on the gear. Seat problem maybe, or something with a one line boldface of eject...Will be interesting to see what comes out.
Click to expand...

The "twin tailed tennis court" as small? :eek:

I see the rain, I wonder if it was a field arrestment that they thought was going wrong and punched and in fact it went just fine once they stepped outside? Not sure what conditions an Eagle takes a field arrest in. For us it was mostly hyd failure that took out nosewheel steering and anti-skid.
 
Pugs said:
The "twin tailed tennis court" as small? :eek:

I see the rain, I wonder if it was a field arrestment that they thought was going wrong and punched and in fact it went just fine once they stepped outside? Not sure what conditions an Eagle takes a field arrest in. For us it was mostly hyd failure that took out nosewheel steering and anti-skid.
Click to expand...

Our F-18s used to request the cable a lot during “standing water” days. Used to be a pain trying to coordinated with aircraft recovery for multiple traps.
 
e89068084fbdcd136a3239536095db4e.jpg
 
F-15QA (Qatar). They just started doing training in their brand new jets at KBLV.
 
Didn't know that Boeing uses the F-15 for international travel.
 
Velocity173 said:
Our F-18s used to request the cable a lot during “standing water” days. Used to be a pain trying to coordinated with aircraft recovery for multiple traps.
Click to expand...

The early F/A-18s had some bad issues with departing runways in the rain and flipping especially with tires pumped up to carrier pressures. Some software updates and training fixed but in the TA-4 with standing water we always took a trap.
 
Pugs said:
The early F/A-18s had some bad issues with departing runways in the rain and flipping especially with tires pumped up to carrier pressures. Some software updates and training fixed but in the TA-4 with standing water we always took a trap.
Click to expand...

Yep, seemed like T-2s did as well. I’ve told the story before about sitting in the tower watching a T-2 take the cable during heavy rain and it ripped his hook out the back. Rumor was they had F-18 tension set and not T-2. :(
 
Witmo said:
Didn't know that Boeing uses the F-15 for international travel.
Click to expand...

o_O

Crash? On the runway and it looks like it is still on its gear. Huh? :confused:

What wonderful "journalists" we have today. :rolleyes:
 
Ok, this article reads better:

Reports are still coming in about an accident involving a Qatar Emiri Air Force F-15QA fighter jet at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois. Emergency responders were on the scene at around 7:30 AM local time. The two crew members on board ejected while the aircraft was on the ground. Early reports indicated that one of them was injured and taken to hospital for observation, while the other was unhurt.
 
Pugs said:
The "twin tailed tennis court" as small? :eek:

I see the rain, I wonder if it was a field arrestment that they thought was going wrong and punched and in fact it went just fine once they stepped outside? Not sure what conditions an Eagle takes a field arrest in. For us it was mostly hyd failure that took out nosewheel steering and anti-skid.
Click to expand...
I'm not seeing any cables there except for maybe over runs on the west runway
 
Pugs said:
The "twin tailed tennis court" as small? :eek:

I see the rain, I wonder if it was a field arrestment that they thought was going wrong and punched and in fact it went just fine once they stepped outside? Not sure what conditions an Eagle takes a field arrest in. For us it was mostly hyd failure that took out nosewheel steering and anti-skid.
Click to expand...

What airplane was 'us'.
 
Pugs said:
The early F/A-18s had some bad issues with departing runways in the rain and flipping especially with tires pumped up to carrier pressures. Some software updates and training fixed but in the TA-4 with standing water we always took a trap.
Click to expand...

At Lemoore the F18's didn't trap much. The A7's always did if the runway was wet. Pain in the azz. Those guys running the gear was slow, took what seemed like forever to get a ready deck. They were E28's
 
Last edited:
Velocity173 said:
Yep, seemed like T-2s did as well. I’ve told the story before about sitting in the tower watching a T-2 take the cable during heavy rain and it ripped his hook out the back. Rumor was they had F-18 tension set and not T-2. :(
Click to expand...
T-2 that is one from the past. Used to work on them back in the late 70's early 80's
 
Wonder what the emergence was that caused them to eject after landing
 
AKBill said:
Wonder what the emergence was that caused them to eject after landing
Click to expand...
Dunno. But I know all about the deal with Qatar now. Maybe if we Google US sells F15's to Qatar we might be able to find out what happened
 
AKBill said:
T-2 that is one from the past. Used to work on them back in the late 70's early 80's
Click to expand...

I've mentioned in earlier posts about.my building of a test cell at NAS Kingsville in the mid 1980s. The T-2 and TA-4J were in use for training at the time. The Buckeyes were tough looking little guys, and in conversation with instructor pilots, the consensus was it was impossible to pull the wings off of one during high G maneuvers.

:D
 
Last edited:
Velocity173 said:
I’ve told the story before about sitting in the tower watching a T-2 take the cable during heavy rain and it ripped his hook out the back.
Click to expand...
...and I've responded that I know the guy who was in the back seat of said Guppy :D

Nauga,
and his small world after all.
 
3393RP said:
IThe Buckeyes were tough looking little guys, and in conversation with instructor pilots, the consensus was it was impossible to pull the wings off of one during high G maneuvers.
Click to expand...
If that's true (it's not) it's only because it bled airspeed so fast that you couldn't overstress it before stalling ;)

Still I love the Buckeye.

Nauga,
tail over teakettle
 
nauga said:
If that's true (it's not) it's only because it bled airspeed so fast that you couldn't overstress it before stalling ;)

Still I love the Buckeye.

Nauga,
tail over teakettle
Click to expand...

:D

It's one of those endearing designs that always did what was asked of it, and it absorbed the rough handling meted out by generations of ham fisted Ensigns and LT JGs.
 
3393RP said:
I've mentioned in earlier posts about.my building of a test cell at NAS Kingsville in the mid 1980s. The T-2 and TA-4J were in use for training at the time. The Buckeyes were tough looking little guys, and in conversation with instructor pilots, the consensus was it was impossible to pull the wings off of one during high G maneuvers.:D
Click to expand...

Going through Naval Aviation Safety School (at least when it was still in Monterey) one of the wrecks you look at for the hands on training was a T-2 involved in an inflight break up in Pax River. The challenging part was that it was mixed with parts of an A-4. Especially identifiable to us was the AN/AJB-3 that the T-2 didn't have since we had all flown the TA-4J it stuck out as odd in the pile of parts.

Turns out in dredging up wreckage the T-2 happened to fall on the same site that an A-4 had gone down earlier so we examined a mixed pile of wreckage (The Navy used to have an aggressive aerially deployed artificial reef program in the restricted areas in the Chesapeake much to the oysters and crabs happiness and NAVAIRS unhappiness) :D

Turns out, as we examined the spar you can see it broke in a downward direction, as in negative G. The pilot had ejected and survived but his "it just broke up" story sort of fell apart when radar tracks started being put together and it turned out it was a little unbriefed ACM with a buddy in an A-4 (not the same one that was dredged up).

The A-4, having a delta wing, puts out 4X the wake turbulence of a standard wing. The F-16 generates similar wakes (https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/37534). As this guy, at high g, rolled through his buddies wake turbulence it reversed from high positive to a significant high negative and snapped both wings off. So you CAN break the wings off a T-2 but you have to work real hard to do it.
 
Pugs said:
Turns out, as we examined the spar you can see it broke in a downward direction, as in negative G. The pilot had ejected and survived but his "it just broke up" story sort of fell apart when radar tracks started being put together and it turned out it was a little unbriefed ACM with a buddy in an A-4 (not the same one that was dredged up).
Click to expand...
That T-2 was from the same squadron as Velocity's example. I know that guy too. :( The back seater unfortunately did not make it out.

Nauga,
and dinosaurs and elephants
 
nauga said:
That T-2 was from the same squadron as Velocity's example. I know that guy too. :( The back seater unfortunately did not make it out.

Nauga,
and dinosaurs and elephants
Click to expand...

I didn't recall the back seater but sad to know. Hard to believe even NPS was 25 years ago for me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top