[GoldCountryRedneck]

Owens Lake area... is a largely dry lakebed

Glad he punched out safely, but wonder why he didn't dead-stick it onto the lakebed ala Edwards.

oh well...

[jwparkerjr]

Could it have been an uncontained failure during which shrapnel from the disentegrating engine damaged his ability to control the aircraft? Usually when I think of 'engine failure' my thoughts run along the flame out line, but apparently engine failure can do a lot more than shut down the engine! There's an awful lot of parts, big and small, going round and round in that engine and when one of them comes apart it can be pretty exciting I guess.

So glad he got out safely though!

[Mat_Helm]

Its not that close to Edwards and only if he had been at altitude. He was probably low level and parts of it are wet this time of year.

A similar incident with a pilot in an A4 Navy Skyhawk with VFA127 who ran out of fuel during a training exercise closer to China Lake attempted a dead stick landing and lost his life. I was helping train pilots at NAS Lemoore at the time. VFA127 is the aggressor squadron and was flying out of Lemoore and Fallon at the time. He was a well liked pilot and it was sad to see him go out this way.

That same year we lost another F-18 pilot who lost situational awareness in the same area and flew right into the wet (dry lake). Practicing low level bomb runs on a semicloudy day over water 10 feet deep that mirrored the sky and his wing watched him roll right into the lake. He caught his mistake at the last second but to late. He struck the lake rebounded and ejected low level to no avail.