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Midair collision between F-16 and Cessna 150 in South Carolina.

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M

MJPIA

Member
http://www.ksla.com/story/29491579/faa-f-16-cessna-c-150-collide-11-miles-north-of-charleston
8251816_G.jpg



The Federal Aviation Administration says an F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Cessna C-150 aircraft collided in mid-air 11 miles north of Charleston.

The Berkeley County Fire Department says the crash happened near Old Highway 52 at Lewisfield Plantation in Moncks Corner.

They say the F-16 pilot was rescued by a person in a pick-up truck. The pilot is now headed to a hospital in a helicopter.

There are reports toxic flames are coming from the F-16. A witness tells us the crash was in a rice field about 100 feet from land, very close to the historic Lewisfield plantation home.

The Berkeley County Fire Department says the fuselage of the Cessna has been located and a rescue swimmers are searching for additional survivors. They say the Coast Guard is overhead.
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Can't copy and paste anything from this ibtimes article but it says one of the aircraft had hydrazine onboard.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/reports-f-16-midair-plane-crash-private-plane-n388046
jetengine1_1_d80bae14539a255f12323ca6d23cd307.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg
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Not looking good at the moment but I'm hoping they find the Cessna occupants alive.
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
I can't imagine a scenario where the Cessna occupants come out of this alive :\
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Stuff like this must be so terrifying/eye opening if you live in that area. Like damn, you could have been killed by a jet engine falling from the sky today.
 
E

Effect

Member
Would those two planes normally be at the same altitude? I would have imagined an F-16 would be much higher in the sky
 
T

Tallshortman

Member
I'm guessing the Cessna was in restricted air space, did they have their radio off or something? I would assume the military would be giving them ample warning they were somewhere they're not allowed.
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
wienke said:
I don't understand how aircraft collide much less something as nimble as an F-16.
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That's always something that surprises me too. The sky looks too big for two planes to get in each other's way without the possibility to dodge.

For regular passenger planes, I understand that they are flying in corridors and thus a bit likelier to be on the same trajectory, especially around airports. But in this case it's particularly surprising.
 
W

Winterblink

Member
Funky Papa said:
Nasty, nasty stuff. There was a recent accident in Spain involving a Greek F-16 that killed 11 people and spread hydrazine all over the place. It took days to clean the place and made rescue operations a bitch and half.
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Gotta love deep diving on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Burnt_Frost. Operation to shoot down a malfunctioning satellite before an uncontrolled re-entry that could result in a big contamination of hydrazine.

Also an excuse to blow some shit up in space.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Tallshortman said:
I'm guessing the Cessna was in restricted air space, did they have their radio off or something? I would assume the military would be giving them ample warning they were somewhere they're not allowed.
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Not necessarily. Military aircraft don't only operate in military airspace of course. Hard to draw any conclusions just yet, but for the longest time the military didn't communicate too well with those in charge of civilian airspace.
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Tallshortman said:
I'm guessing the Cessna was in restricted air space, did they have their radio off or something? I would assume the military would be giving them ample warning they were somewhere they're not allowed.
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Says 11 miles north of Charleston in the OP. There is a Military Operations Area north of Charleston, but it's about 20+ miles away. And the Cessna would have the right of way, as the less maneuverable aircraft.

Also worth noting that MOAs are not a restricted area, just a place to exercise caution.
 
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
I had to look it up, but the cessna planes are small. Hoping for the best for the people in that aircraft. Not looking good though.
 
B

Bubba_Sparks

Member
Wouldn't the F-16's radar have let the pilot know there was an aircraft near it? Or do they turn it off; leaving it in a reduced functioning state for certain applications or training missions? If the F-16 pilot survived I wonder if he ejected beforehand, or was still conscious enough to do so after the fact?
 
T

TheDrizzlerJ11

Member
Bubba_Sparks said:
Wouldn't the F-16's radar have let it know it was their was an aircraft near it? Or do they turn it off, leave it in a reduced functioning state for certain applications or training missions? If the F-16 pilot survived I wonder if he ejected beforehand, or was still conscious enough to do so after the fact?
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That would make some sense if something went wrong and he ejected beforehand and the Cessna got hit by an empty f-16 falling out of the sky. How a piloted F-16 manages to collide with a Cessna doesn't make any sense.
 
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link.

Berkeley County Coroner Bill Salisbury said at a press conference a witness reported the military plane hit the broadside of the Cessna. Salisbury also said debris was scattered over a large area, mostly in a marsh area, including a rice field.
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M

Mr. Giggles

Member
KHarvey16 said:
Would a 150 have TCAS installed?
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It might've, I've seen STC's for avionics on planes I would never have guessed had them

edit:

I would have imagined that the FAA mandates some kind of traffic avoidance system for planes flying in American air space regardless of how small they are, then again there may have been some changes - its been a while since i've read the latest updates to the advisory circulars
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Mr. Giggles said:
It might've, I've seen STC's for avionics on planes I would never have guessed had them

edit:

I would have imagined that the FAA mandates some kind of traffic avoidance system for planes flying in American air space regardless of how small they are, then again there may have been some changes - its been a while since i've read the latest updates to the advisory circulars
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I don't think there are any requirements for active collision avoidance systems on ga aircraft in the US. Doing some research though it looks like lower cost CAS systems are available, which act much like TCAS I, are focused toward smaller aircraft and have much more manageable price tags ($7k-$20k). TCAS II systems start at around $100k and are quite heavy.
 
M

Mr. Giggles

Member
KHarvey16 said:
I don't think there are any requirements for active collision avoidance systems on ga aircraft in the US. Doing some research though it looks like lower cost CAS systems are available, which act much like TCAS I, are focused toward smaller aircraft and have much more manageable price tags ($7k-$20k). TCAS II systems start at around $100k and are quite heavy.
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Thanks for the info.

Doing my first part 23 STC for a 7.1 box upgrade, really cool how it works
 
M

MJPIA

Member
Yeah I believe tcas systems are only required for aircraft above a certain amount of weight or that can carry a certain amount of passengers.

There are 6.5 aircraft in the hangar I'm in including one which got $200,000 worth of avionics installed last year and not a single one has a collision warning system.
 
S

Souldestroyer Reborn

Banned
There's only one person the blame can fall on here and that is the F-16 pilot, unless he ejected from the plane and the empty plane hit the Cessna, which would be extremley unlikely.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Mr. Giggles said:
Thanks for the info.

Doing my first part 23 STC for a 7.1 box upgrade, really cool how it works
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Hardware and software upgrades? They sure do love their documentation, don't they? Lol.

Sounds like the military pilot was communicating with atc. Will have to wait for more info regarding the civilian pilot.
 
Squirrel Killer

Squirrel Killer

Member
Souldestroyer Reborn said:
There's only one person the blame can fall on here and that is the F-16 pilot, unless he ejected from the plane and the empty plane hit the Cessna, which would be extremley unlikely.
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Really? There's no possible way the Cessna or ATC could have been a fault? How is right of way/blame/etc... determined in aviation?

I mean - and this is a complete hypothetical here - what if the planes were on parallel courses, and ATC (or whoever) intended to tell the Cessna to turn right, but accidentally tells it to turn left (directly in the F-16's path,) is that still the F-16's fault?
 
L

Lothars

Member
speculawyer said:
:-(

Well that sucks. RIP Cessna pilot & passenger if there was one.

F-16 pilot . . . You know you fucked up.
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Souldestroyer Reborn said:
There's only one person the blame can fall on here and that is the F-16 pilot, unless he ejected from the plane and the empty plane hit the Cessna, which would be extremley unlikely.
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Neither of you know the full story, I don't see how you can accuse the F-16 Pilot of doing anything wrong until all the information is out.
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Lothars said:
Neither of you know the full story, I don't see how you can accuse the F-16 Pilot of doing anything wrong until all the information is out.
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As someone with a pilot license, there are very few instances I can think of where the Cessna pilot would be at fault. The less maneuverable aircraft has the right of way, and from the sound of it he slammed into the side of the Cessna.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
DrForester said:
As someone with a pilot license, there are very few instances I can think of where the Cessna pilot would be at fault. The less maneuverable aircraft has the right of way, and from the sound of it he slammed into the side of the Cessna.
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But it's important to keep in mind this isn't necessarily binary, either. Even if we knew at this point it wasn't the fault of the Cessna pilot, that doesn't mean it automatically becomes the fault of the F16 pilot. Investigations are done to not only assign responsibility but uncover gaps in training, procedures and rules.
 
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