[Pentagon Leatherneck]

I sure hope the guy punched out and is wandering around in the forest. But with no beacon or pinger on 243.0, that’s less likely. Birds going into mod/upgrade depot maintenenace are not always in the finest condition. Pray.

TC

[ExNewsExSpook]

AP said there was a brief emergency call from the pilot before contact was lost. Whatever happened, it happened very quickly.

Brings to mind the longeron failure that caused the crash of a Missouri ANG F-15 back in 2007 and grounded much of the Eagle fleet around the world for several months. That pilot managed to eject, but he suffered a broken arm, a broken shoulder and other injuries. Here's a video simulation of what it looked like when that F-15 broke apart.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/f15crash.asp

Too early to say what caused today's crash (with any certainty) but the early information suggests some sort of catastrophic failure that incapacitated the pilot.

[blackdog]

Is the F-15 a two pilot or single pilot platform?