F-16 Fighting Falcon, 88-0488
F-16C, 88-0488, 4th TFS Hill AFB Utah was hit by a SA3 on 21
Jan 1991, which exploded behind his tailpipe peppering the aircraft.
Fragments impacted:
- Lower left side of the intake, puncturing all the way thru
in several areas damaging the inside of the Intake
- Lower left wing, puncturing that wings fuel cell with a
2"x 3" hole
- Lower left wing root, puncturing the wing root panel and
damaging some of the Cat 5 wing attachment structure
- Left and right stabilator trailing edges, and put a hole
thru the right stab about mid section
- Engine exhaust tail feathers
Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of as much damage as I
wanted, but here are a few
The F-16's didn't see much damage. Those that did
couldn't make it all the way back to where the F-16 CLSS teams were located so they came
to us, because we were extremely close to the front line. A few of us had
prior F-16 experience, which helped in getting this one back together. It
flew back to it's home base, somewhere in Bahrain I think.
Another F-16, tail number unknown at this time, was damaged
and came into KKMC. It was so badly damaged it was disassembled and
shipped back to the depot at Hill AFB. Our CLSS team worked with the F-16
CLSS team that came in to work it. I have no photos of that aircraft, or
any other information for that matter.
Links
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usaf/421fs.htm When Iraq
invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the 421st TFS found themselves facing armed
opponents for the first time since Vietnam as it deployed to Southwest Asia
in Support of Operation Desert Shield. The squadron once again returned to
its proud combat heritage as a nighttime fighter squadron. Once open
hostilities began in Operation Desert Storm, it became the first F-16 unit
to fly the LANTIRN system in combat. Pilots dropped more than 2,000 tons of
conventional munitions on strategic and tactical sites in Iraq and Kuwait
during more than 1,300 combat sorties -- 1,200 of them at night, without
combat losses or battle damage to aircraft.
