Posted on 05/21/2004 5:04:44 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
5/21/2004 - TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- An F-15 Eagle crashed into the Gulf of Mexico at about noon May 21.
The plane, assigned to the 325th Fighter Wing here, was on a training mission.
Lt. Col. Patrick Marshall, 1st Fighter Squadron commander, piloted the aircraft and is reported in good condition.
A board of officers will investigate the accident.
And I would bet he's eager to get back up there!
Thank God he's okay.
He later got a job at Eglin and worked there until he retired.
When I was a little biddy kid I would go down to the flight line at Tyndall and watch the P-51's and F-80's.
/john
I used to live in Mexico Beach, not too far away.
Watched the comings and goings of these guys over the golf a lot.
HMM. The F-15 in all of its versions has proven very airworthy. The F-16, OTOH, is known as "the Lawn Dart." Back in the 80's, so many crashed out of Hill AFB, UT, the joke was, "How can you own your very own F-16?" Answer: "Buy an acre in Utah and just wait."
I live in Ogden, UT about 7 miles from Hill AFB. The F-16s crash a lot less often out here but it still happens. They're flying tons of night ops, too. Of course, night flights out in the dark desert are dangerous enough that guys make sure everything is just right and are sharp up there. It's the routine daylight fun flights that are dangerous.
Nice place to live but it is starting to grow now.
The Sqadron CO managed to lose an airplane? Maybe a student hit him or something? (The 325th is the F-15 schoolhouse unit, they train pilots to fly the F-15. They work with the air weapons controller trainees who are in a different squadron of the same wing.)
They work with one of five controlling agencies...students do very little controlling there these days.
As I understand it, the problem back in the 80's was GLOC (G-induced Loss Of Consciousness) due to the airplane's abilities to exceed the tolerance level of the pilots. They've changed procedures to compensate for that problem.
Served there late 80's early 90's. Two F-15s and an F-5 hit the ground while I was there, 1 pilot from F-15 and 1 from F-5 died. Saw the F-5 pilot eject but he wasn't high enough. The F-15 pilot was a student. He over G'd the jet and ripped the wings off, rode it into the water. It always turned my stomach to hear one wasn't coming back.
Tough job. I miss it terribly. Always Air Force!
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