5-16-2024 5:45pm

Power outage downed US F-16 Per Report May be Clue to Holloman AFB Crash

Chris Edwards Editor

A report released by the Air Force may provide a clue to the most recent Holloman AFB crash from April. The United States Air Force released an investigative report concerning the crash of an F16 in South Korea this week.

The findings of a detailed investigation report that the jet partially lost power and began showing unreliable flight data, causing the pilot to lose control of the aircraft as he navigated through thick clouds while on an exercise.

The unnamed pilot, a member of the 80th Fighter Squadron at South Korea’s Kunsan Air Base, safely ejected before his F-16 hit the ground on the morning of May 6, 2023. The jet was destroyed at a cost of nearly $30 million.

The airman had taken off from Osan Air Base minutes earlier to fly a routine training sortie as part of Beverly Herd, the 8th Fighter Wing’s local readiness exercise, the report said. He was manning the second aircraft in a four-ship formation.

According to the investigation report, the power loss caused a “cascading failure or restart” of the pilot’s primary flight and navigation instruments. But the jet didn’t alert the pilot to use the standby display as it should have, instead showing him mismatched flight data across the two systems. Clouds prevented the airman from using visual cues to orient the jet at low altitude.

The disparate information “caused the [pilot] to become spatially disoriented and unable to maintain aircraft control in the weather and at a low altitude,” Col. Lynn Savage, who led the investigation, wrote in the report.

Because the F-16 was destroyed, investigators couldn’t determine what caused the electrical outage that ultimately downed the jet. Had the power stayed on or the skies remained clear, Savage said, the accident may not have happened.

The May 2023 crash marked the first in a string of F-16 accidents on the Korean Peninsula in the span of nine months, and the fourth Fighting Falcon mishap within a year.

In December 2023, another 8th Fighter Wing pilot safely ejected from an F-16 following an in-flight emergency during a training mission. In January, a third pilot from the same wing ejected as their F-16 crashed into the sea off the west coast of South Korea.

Locally in April 2024, an airman from the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, also escaped their jet as it went down near White Sands National Park. That most recent crash is still under investigation with areas of White Sands National Park still closed as a result.

The just released report can be found at https://www.afjag.af.mil/Portals/77/AIB-Reports/2023/6May23%20USAF_AIB_…