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Aviation History
1979
1979 - 0074.PDF
72 RIGHT International, IJ January 1979 Investigation follows F-15 crash FOLLOWING the loss of a US Air Force F-15 in West Germany on December 28—the second within ten days—maintenance procedures of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) are to be reviewed. Apart from the air craft standing air-defence alert, all Bitburg-based Eagles have been restricted to dry thrust only. The restrictions will be lifted once the maintenance review has been satisfactorily completed and the 36th TFW aircraft have had a revised jet- fuel starter system fitted. The system, which allows ground starts without external power, is to be modified to enable the pilot to restart the Eagle's Pratt & Whitney FlOOs while flying at low altitude. All but one of the air craft operated by the 32nd TFS at Soesterberg, the Netherlands, have already been modified and are there fore unrestricted. The latest accident, near Daun, resulted in the ninth F-15 loss. The pilot, 1st Lt Thomas Mascot, ejected safely. The 36th TFW has lost five F-15s since April last year. An Air Force spokesman says that the acci dents had no single cause. Four have been charged to operational pro cedures, three to maintenance defects and two are still being investigated. The F-15 has so far accumulated 135,000 flying hours, and the loss rate at this point compares favourably with those of a number of US fighters. Comparative loss rates per 100,000hr at the 135,000hr mark are as follows: F-15 Eagle 6-6 F-106 Delta Dart 12-2 F-4 Phantom II 24-8 F-105 Thunderchief 29-6 F-100 Super Sabre 39-1 F-104 Starfighter 46-0 The available details of the nine acci dents are as follows: • October 14, 1975; near Luke AFB, Arizona; pilot ejected safely. Cause of accident revealed as fuel starvation. Having detected smoke in the cock pit, the pilot switched off the main generator, which in turn shut down the boost pump in the main fuel tank. Both engines flamed out at a low alti tude. • February 28, 1977; Nellis AFB, Nevada; pilot ejected safely. • December 6, 1977; Nellis AFB, Nevada; both crewmen of an F-15B were killed. C April 17, 1978; in the North Sea while on a mission from Bitburg; pilot ejected safely. O June 15, 1978; in the North Sea; pilot ejected safely. e July 6, 1978; near Daun; pilot killed. • September 1, 1978; off the coast of Virginia during a mission from Langley AFB, Virginia; pilot ejected safely. •December 19, 1978; near Alhorn, West Germany; pilot ejected safely. mini DEFENCE • December 28, 1978; near Daun; pilot ejected safely. • US Air Force C-130s are returning to operations following throttle cable inspections. Less than 17 per cent of the cables examined were found to be defective. By January 15 all USAF aircraft should have been inspected and repaired. Operators alerted following the loss of a C-130 on December 10 have also completed precautionary inspections. The US Air Force has accumulated two-thirds of the 12 million hours flown by G130s around the world. The cumulative loss rate per 100,000 flight hours in USAF service is 1-48, one of the best for a military trans port aircraft. Vikrant prepares for Sea Harrier ALTHOUGH India has yet to order Sea Harriers, the aircraft carrier Vikrant is being modernised in pre paration for the new aircraft. Bombay naval dockyard is currently carrying out a two-year refit at an estimated cost of Rsl40 million (£8-7 million). India expects Vikrant to be in ser vice for another thirteen years. The carrier was first bought from Britain in 1957 and has been in active service for seventeen years, A Sea Harrier order to replace Indian Navy Sea Hawks has been rumoured for some time, But despite public statements of intent from such sources as defence minister Jagjivan Ram, no contract has been signed. British Aerospace is con fident that about eight Sea Harriers will be ordered some time in 1979. United States contemplates pull-out AS civil unrest continues in Iran, the US Defence Department is becoming concerned over the long-term security of the advanced US weaponry operated by the Iranian Air Force. Under con tingency plans drawn up since the emergency began, the most security- sensitive systems, such as F-14 Tom cats and their Phoenix missiles, would be flown out if a politically unaccept able government replaced the present regime. Preparation of such plans is standard practice. At the end of the Vietnam War, for example, advanced military hardware and all remaining US personnel were evacuated to the safety of US Navy ships. Almost 6,000 US citizens had left Iran by the end of last month. Around 900 of these people were military per sonnel and their dependants, the re mainder being civilians and their families. The effect of this exodus on Iranian Air Force effectiveness is hard to assess. There is little doubt that the F-5s could be kept flying, but some US press stories suggest that the entire F-14 fleet is effectively grounded. The most obvious sign of US con cern has been the dispatch to the South China Sea of a six-ship task force headed by the aircraft carrier Constellation. US sources say that President Garter has ordered the force to stay well clear of the Persian Gulf lest the move be interpreted as an attempt to interfere in Iranian politics. While Iran remains in turmoil, the most likely threat to US-supplied weaponry is a major Soviet intellig ence-gathering operation. The worst case—capture or even inspection of an F-14 along with its avionics and missiles—would be the greatest intel ligence coup since the unscheduled arrival of Lt Belenko's Foxbat in Japan two years ago. Such an eventu ality would compromise not only the AWG-9 fire-control radar and Phoenix missile, but also the Tomcat's built-in electronic countermeasures and the associated radar-warning and missile- warning receivers. The Pentagon maintains that the security of US-supplied military and intelligence-gathering equipment is adequate. All Tomcats, for example, are guarded day and night, while reports of sabotage to several F-5s have yet to be confirmed. Early reports claimed that a number of the Northrop fighters had been sabotaged in an incident in which Iranian mili tary personnel slashed electrical wiring harnesses inside 20 aircraft, Later dispatches blamed Soviet agents. A source has told the Los Angeles Times that "the job involved very complex ' electronics and was too sophisticated for ordinary air force technicians to accomplish." US and
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