A misaligned vane in an F-16 engine that field-level maintainers cannot see to inspect caused one of the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbird jets to crash last December, a new report concludes. The same problem led another F-16 to crash 20 months earlier.
Accident investigation Board report
Mistakes made by a KC-46 boom operator and an F-22 pilot combined to break off the refueling boom, leaving $10 million in damage as the boom plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, an Air Force investigation found.
Poor event planning and staffing contributed to a fatal mishap last April at Kadena Air Base, Japan, when rotor wash from an HH-60W helicopter knocked over a Japanese teacher from a Department of Defense Education Activity school attending a public aerial demonstration, according to an Air Force investigation.
Impure metal used to make a gear in the proprotor gearbox of a CV-22 caused it to fail, leading to a mishap and emergency landing in November 2024 that resulted in nearly $2.8 million in damages and a brief operational pause for the entire Osprey fleet, according to a new Air Force report.
A helicopter instructor pilot failed to take sufficient corrective action in time to fix the mistakes of a student pilot taking off from a slope, resulting in a rollover that caused nearly $11 million in damages to a TH-1H chopper last spring.
A known “blind spot” in F-16 engines meant maintainers couldn’t see one turned vane inside an aircraft at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.—damage that resulted in engine failure and a crash that destroyed the $21 million fighter in April 2024, according to a new Air ...
A flight in August 2023 meant to help a U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot regain currency on an emergency procedure ended with the UH-1N chopper crashing and flipping at Cheyenne Regional Airport, Wyo., according to a new Accident Investigation Board report.
A runaway bomb lift rammed into a parked U.S. Air Force F-16 deployed to the Middle East last November, sparking a blaze that caused $30 million in damages, according to a new USAF report.
A critical failure of an F-16’s navigation combined with a faulty backup system and poor weather conditions led to the $28 million jet’s crash in December off the coast of South Korea, according to an Air Force report released on Sept. 26.
A high-profile crash of a B-1B Lancer at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., earlier this year destroyed the $450 million bomber and was caused by a cascading series of aircrew missteps, overlooked information, and an overall lax culture in units at the base, according to ...
An inexperienced pilot’s errors and general lack of knowledge, combined with an overbearing operations supervisor, were the key factors that led to a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 crashing into the sea somewhere in the Middle East last September, according to a new accident investigation board ...
An electrical power disruption wreaked havoc on an F-16's flight and navigation instruments, and poor weather meant the pilot had no other way of gaining his bearings, resulting in a fiery crash in South Korea last year that destroyed the $29 million aircraft, according to ...
