Airplane collision over Nackenheim

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The aircraft collision over Nackenheim was a collision between two F-16 combat aircraft (type F-16C 25F) on June 29, 1988 over the northern outskirts of the Rhineland-Palatinate community of Nackenheim . The two aircraft belonged to the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing of the US Air Force and were stationed at Hahn Air Base . It was the nineteenth and twentieth US Air Force F-16 crashes in Europe.

Course of events

The two jets simulated a so-called dogfight at a height of about 150 meters , an aerial combat in flight. When they were asked by air traffic control to change their course, one of the pilots turned to the right, while the other held course against the instructions. Around 1.30 p.m. and at a speed of 800 or 900 km / h, the planes collided on the wings, exploded and crashed into a field in the area of ​​today's Aldi store on the outskirts of Bodenheim . Parts fell on the B9 feeder road L413. One of the two pilots (Captain Mike Crandall) died, the other (Captain Bob McCormack) was able to escape using an ejector seat and was found seriously injured in a grain field. According to the chronicle of the Bodenheim fire brigade, if the collision had occurred a second earlier, the planes would have gone down in the area of ​​the Nackenheim school, and a second later in the Bodenheim industrial estate.

Investigation and consequences

The plane crash - it was the third and fourth F-16 crashes within three months - sparked political discussions nationwide about low-level flights by military aircraft over inhabited areas. The investigation into the accident revealed that Mike Crandall had been on duty for 18 hours, had completed several flights during this period and was overtired. The squadron captain responsible for this lost his post. Bob McCormack worked for Continental Airlines after his recovery .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miguel Vasconcelos, United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration: Civil Airworthiness Certification: Former Military High-Performance Aircraft , Stickshaker Pubs, September 19, 2013, Section 4, page 123. ( Excerpt )
  2. ↑ a b c d Chronicle from 1974 to 1999 , Bodenheim fire brigade, accessed on November 25, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c F-16 crashes in West Germany trigger complaints , United Press International , June 30, 1988.
  4. ↑ a b On the same afternoon (according to AP report) another F-16 crashed near Marxzell , which (according to UPI report) was the twenty-first crash.
  5. ↑ US F-16s Crash in Mid-Air; Another F-16 Crashes in Black Forest , Associated Press , June 29, 1988.
  6. ^ A b Adrian Kilb: Bodenheim plane crash in 1988: "A fireball shone brightly" , Merkurist Mainz, February 11, 2016.
  7. ↑ Serge Schnemann: 3 US Jet Fighters Crash in Germany , New York Times , June 30, 1988th

Coordinates: 49 ° 55 '22.4 "  N , 8 ° 20' 23.8"  E