What happened
On the night of 8 December 2020, an F-16C, tail number 86-0317, crashed into a wooded region within Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest. The aircraft was operating as part of a practice Aerospace Control Alert (ACA) mission out of the 115th Fighter Wing, Truax Field Air National Guard Base, Wisconsin.
The flight was originally planned as a two-ship night intercept involving a Civil Air Patrol aircraft; however, due to weather in Green Bay, the intercept was canceled, and the mission proceeded as a two-ship practice scramble using an instrument profile. During the flight, the pilot noted a degradation in GPS satellite tracking and elected to perform an inflight alignment of the inertial navigation system (INS). During this procedure, the flight performed a lead swap. Shortly after, the aircraft entered weather conditions that caused the pilot to lose visual contact with the wingman. The aircraft subsequently entered a series of extreme attitude changes, including a 90-degree nose-low attitude and a 135-degree right bank at speeds reaching 600 knots, ultimately resulting in controlled flight into terrain. There was no attempt to eject.
The investigation
The Air Force Accident Investigation Board examined the sequence of events, the aircraft's systems, and environmental factors. Investigators analyzed the pilot's use of night vision goggles (NVGs), the impact of low illumination, and the flight's technical status, specifically focusing on the GPS degradation and the effects of the inflight INS alignment procedure on available flight data.