What happened
On 8 October 2019, an F-16CJ, tail number 91-0340, was conducting a routine suppression of enemy air defenses training mission as part of the SABER FURY local readiness exercise. The aircraft, assigned to the 480th Fighter Squadron, 52d Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, was operating as part of a formation when it experienced a significant electrical malfunction shortly after takeoff.
Approximately 13 seconds into the flight, the aircraft suffered a partial electrical power loss, commonly referred to as a brownout. This disruption caused the embedded global positioning and inertial navigation set (EGI) to lose power and remain offline. Consequently, several primary flight and navigation instruments, including the multifunction displays and the electronic horizontal situation indicator, went blank or provided unreliable data. Crucially, the primary attitude direction indicator continued to display information without showing any fault or failure flags.
At the time of the malfunction, the aircraft was transitioning into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) with a cloud ceiling of 500 feet. The mismatch between the frozen primary instruments and the standby instruments caused the pilot to experience spatial disorientation. After two attempts to use the pilot activated recovery system failed because the EGI remained offline, and after seeing trees through the windscreen at low altitude, the pilot ejected. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact in a forested area approximately 8 nautical miles south of the base. There were zero fatalities.
The investigation
The investigation examined the aircraft's crash survivable memory unit (CSMU) and flight control data to reconstruct the sequence of events. Investigators analyzed the cockpit indications observed by the pilot, including a master caution light and an MMC restart indication. The board also reviewed weather reports, maintenance records, and the functionality of the aircraft's escape systems and electronic components.
Findings
- The primary cause was a combination of two factors: a partial electrical power loss and adverse weather conditions.
- The electrical power loss caused a cascading failure of the E/GI and primary instruments, specifically leaving the primary attitude indicator displaying unreliable data without warning flags.
- The weather conditions (IMC with a 500-foot ceiling) forced the pilot to rely on flight instruments during a critical phase of flight, making him unable to use visual references to resolve the conflicting instrument data.
- The loss of power to the EGI prevented the pilot activated recovery system from successfully returning the aircraft to stable flight.