F-16 Viper Demo Team Emergency landing III
Airshow, Military, News, Video

EMERGENCY LANDING STOPS USAF F-16 VIPER DEMO TEAM DISPLAY AT RIAT 2019

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND – Scarey moments on the last day of the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford Air Base. The USAF F-16 Viper Demo Team’s display had to stop the display, due to a damaged aircraft. The pilot landed the F-16 safely.

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The video shows a damaged elevator. Video: Nigel Woolley on YouTube

The display Sunday was short lived as only a few minutes into the display an emergency was called, the display ceased and the pilot climbed higher to circle, while assessing the issue. Then the pilot performed a fly over for the ground crew at the show to inspect the F-16.

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Another video of the emergency landing from a slightly different angle.
Video: Elwyn R on YouTube

Various reports suggest the problem was “spontaneous delamination of the stabilizer’s composite material”. However, the raw footage in the next video show no evidence of anything striking the tail.

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This video shows the moment what looks like the trailing edge of the right horizontal stabilizer broke away, followed by a stream of debris from the same area.
Video: flugsnug on YouTube

Eventually the pilot landed the F-16 safely. The landing revealed what appeared to be damage to the right elevator of the aircraft.

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This image shows us a clear view on the damaged right elevator.
Image: Elwyn R on YouTube

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(Image: from Elwyn R video)

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