Turkish F-16 fighter crashes near Syria, killing pilot

[MH]

Could be bird hit at low level and engine failure.
I doubt FBW issues very much , in particular in this jet.

[Wolferz]

Gremlins strike again.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by MH

Could be bird hit at low level and engine failure.
I doubt FBW issues very much , in particular in this jet.

An engine failure would cause serious control issues for the FBW in an F-16 actually.Remember the F-16 is a highly unstable airframe it needs the FBW to fly at all if the engine where to fail specifically at lower speeds and altitudes an F-16 would rapidly become uncontrollable.FBW is not a miracle worker even if it works perfectly if a major component fails it can not redesign the airframe to fly in a different manor.

The majority of F-16 crashes are caused by engine failures which is not a direct failure of the FBW per say but the FBW simply cant keep control once the engine fails and enough airspeed is lost.Of course all F-16 pilots(except IDF) are trained by the USAF and they know the points at which the aircraft is no longer controllable and can not be saved.

Interestingly doing some quick reading it seems that all operators of the F-16 are seeing an increase of crashes.Lockeed-Martin blames most crashes on pilot error of course.

The "old" saying is two engines are better than one when one engine fails the other engine will function perfectly long enough for you to fly into the ground.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by MH

I doubt FBW issues very much , in particular in this jet.

That's what they told us when Hill AFB here in Utah lost a bunch of them back in the late '70s. PR said no, everybody else said yes.

[Stealhead]

When the aircraft manufacturer tends to blame pilot error that makes me suspect that the FBW is to blame.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That's what they told us when Hill AFB here in Utah lost a bunch of them back in the late '70s. PR said no, everybody else said yes.

In FY 1983, when I was stationed at Hill, half of the US F-16 crashes were at Hill (Utah Test and Training Range). Half. We spent a lot of time scraping F-16s and their pilots off the salt flats.