<H1 BIG><Center>F16 vs. BIRD</Center></H1>

READ FIRST, THEN VIEW VIDEO ...

by Guest Blogger Leo Parrish of Highland, MI

This is footage from the cockpit of an F-16. Cool reaction and  professionalism of 
the two pilots, including cockpit transmission with video. F-16 engine ingests bird
after takeoff @ Tyndall AFB, FL. Think you might find it interesting to see a crash
from the cockpit of an airplane.

It is an instructor pilot in the rear and a student in the front seat of an F-16.

A "Bird Strike," as seen through the Heads Up Display (HUD). You can see the bird
flash by just prior to impacting the engine. You can hear the aircraft voice warning
system telling them they have a problem and referring to the "D-6 NL" which means
there is no engine RPM.

They made 2 attempts to relight the jet engine, but evidently there was too much
damage from the bird strike and they had to eject.

These guys were very cool; note the heavy breathing... They certainly flew longer
than one would expect before ejecting.. Airspeed can be observed on the HUD's upper
left corner. It goes down to the low 120's as they struggle to get the engine going
again, but as the plane noses over and dives to earth it increases to at least 175
just before impact.

It just goes to show how quickly your day can go to pieces - 45 seconds from strike
to ejection. All and all, not bad. They ran the Emergency  Checklist, made two
relight attempts, and picked out a ploughed field for impact before ejecting...You
can follow the audio attached to it and hear the conversation between the pilot and
instructor pilot and then the tower, including the pilot saying they were punching
out...The tower didn't seem to completely understand it  all, and missed the
significance of the last transmission. The tower's last radio call, he's talking to
an empty aircraft.

The video continues until impact, even after they both eject. A classic "buying the
farm" as you can see the plow rows get bigger. A real nice job by the pilots by
keeping their cool and turning the aircraft away from populated areas. No one hurt
and no one killed but the dirty bird did cost the taxpayers a "few" million dollars.