Japanese F-2B Fighter crashes on takeoff

[lazboy 1]

A Japanese F-2B fighter jet crashed soon after takeoff todayand went up in flames at an airport in central Japan, lightly injuring the two pilots, an official for aircraft's manufacturer has said.

 

The F-2B fighter was being taken up on a test flight prior to delivery to Japan's air force when it crashed, said Hideo Ikuno, a spokesman for the Daiya public relations firm representing the plane's maker, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, on Wednesday.

 

Footage on commercial broadcaster TV Asahi showed the jet takeoff from the runway in Nagoya, only to suddenly tip downward and skid along the ground in flames. National broadcaster NHK showed the pilots jumping from the burning fuselage.

 

The flames were extinguished about 10 minutes after the crash, Ikuno said. The two crew members, both Mitsubishi Heavy employees, were taken to a hospital with light injuries, Ikuno said. The two were the only ones aboard.

 

Ikuno said the company was seeking further details about the cause of the crash. Nagoya airport was closed indefinitely, spokesman Shinji Ono said.

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_70...sb=1&news=1 Link to BBC Website video footage of the crash

Edited October 31, 2007 by lazboy

[Viggen 644]

Oh no! Not the F-2. I'm surprised that the airframe survived the crash. Looks like the engine swallowed a rock or something.

 

Ahh the media got it wrong again. The pilots were the only on board unless you wanted to put some Mitsubishi or JASDF observers on the pylons Training jet It is a fully combat capable plane.

[Nesher 628]

lucky pilots..! good to read and hear they made it out OK!

[Guest Saganuay82]

You figured out from that movie that the engine ingested a rock? I think it ingested a rock alright after it smashed its nose into the runway.

[FastCargo 412]

I'd have to agree with Sag on this one...even if the engine catastropically failed, the aircraft wouldn't pitch down so abruptly. In fact, it would pitch up as the pilot tried to gain enough altitude to punch out with some buffer.

 

I wouldn't draw ANY conclusions this early in the accident.

 

FastCargo

[Atreides 144]

I know this is somewhat offtopic, but the focus is still the F-2. The link below is for the Keypublishing forum's, which if I'm not mistaken is fairly reputable. What I fail to understand is the outright negative view of the F2 I find it rather amusing that the Chinese are bashing the F2 and calling it junk Did it really fail that miserably to meet the JASDF expectations ?

 

 

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63520&highlight=F2

 

EDIT: Just to be clear so that there are no misunderstanding's, what little I know about the F-2A/B say's that it's very capable. I really like the aircraft, love the look's, but what (again) blew me away was that the Chinese member's were bashing it ! Aside from a few pathetic J-10's and a few SU-27's what do they have in their arsenal that could pose a threat to the F-2 ?

Edited November 1, 2007 by Atreides

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

Okay, I'm not 100%, but I think it goes something like this(Call me out if I've made any mistakes or missed something):

 

It didn't fail per se, but the developmental process for an existing "off the shelf design" being modified for the specific requirements for the JASDF mirrored the approximate length of designing a new aircraft from scratch. Initially, the JASDF just wanted an F-16 optimised for the strike/interdiction/anti ship role with secondary air defence duties and all was set. But politics tripped everything up. At the time of dev, there was a massive trade imbalance with the US that was in Japan's favour and Japan wanted to license build and assemble it entirely themselves. In order to redress this massive imbalance, US industry was green lighted by Congress to slap export limitations on certain vital elements to the design, FBW was a big issue (Japan developing an indigenous variant with considerable difficulty) and I think some construction processes involving carbon fibres and other then new materials (Though I'm not 100% on that). These export limitations prolonged the development cycle until a deal was reached whereby Japan was able to buy licenses (at pretty steep prices compared to market standard) for the existing tech required. This resulted in a new variant that was something like 4x the cost of the Block 50/52 models with a relatively similar capability. In 1999 when wing cracks were discovered, the remedy again proved expensive and delayed the initial in service entry until 2000 (compared with the initial planned time of 1995, then 1997)

 

It is a very capable plane, and with tear any aggressor a new ass if they tangle with it, but at one point it was dying from death by a thousand paper cuts. Plus given the price they're paying for it, they could have bought much newer and more advanced platforms in the meantime. Also, the retirement of the F-4EJ was pushed back so as to offset a possible capability gap from the reduced number of F-2s ordered.

[JediMaster 451]

The technical issues largely resolved now, it's quite simply the world's most overpriced F-16 upgrade. I don't know how it will fare against the (projected) performance of the F-35, but other than the stealth aspect which is obviously lesser I don't know how close it will be.

The Japanese basically got far less than they paid for, or paid for far more than they actually got, depending on how you look at it.

[+Typhoid 231]

I'd have to agree with Sag on this one...even if the engine catastropically failed, the aircraft wouldn't pitch down so abruptly. In fact, it would pitch up as the pilot tried to gain enough altitude to punch out with some buffer.

 

I wouldn't draw ANY conclusions this early in the accident.

 

FastCargo

 

I watched a video clip of this too and the pitch up is pretty sharp. Something else involved here other than just engine failure, but way too early to draw any sort of theories, much less any conclusions.

[Viggen 644]

Here is what I was told by a guy from Japan on another forum:

 

"The second largest military aviation accident in Japan.....I was gonna post this in the "Aviation Current Events Thread", but school called...Luckily, the two test pilots lived out the ordeal. I don't think most of the aircraft would be in decent use.As a resonable cause, the said F-2B was one of the second or fourth upgraded prototypes that failed to fly back in '92. After a series of repairs, the J.A.S.D.F issued it as a tester for new features. Thus, leading to this accident."

[sparkomatic 7]

of course the Chinese call it junk...its personal with those two.

[Rambler 1-1 9]

I watched a video clip of this too and the pitch up is pretty sharp. Something else involved here other than just engine failure, but way too early to draw any sort of theories, much less any conclusions.

 

Actually, it sounds to me like a fly-by-wire glitch or maybe bad maintinence. First off, it reminds me of that time an F-22 went all screwy in flight and the pilot had to crash-land it with the onboard computer pitching the plane up and down very rapidly. There was snother incident with an F-4 where on takeoff full up elevator was applied, causing an F-4 version of the "Sabre dance", or a stall on takeoff after over-rotating. The pilot used rudder to manuver the plane away from a nearby subdivision and then ejected, pilot and GIB unhurt, plane totalled, subdivision fine. It ended up that a trim servo that was replaced had been installed wrong, so instead of proper elevator trim on takeoff full elevator was applied. oops.

 

I'm just guesing, though. Maybe the pilot sneezed.

[JediMaster 451]

That was the YF-22 that had the PIO in the approach and suffered a hard landing due to lag in the FBW system. No F-22A has crashed to date.

[Rambler 1-1 9]

That was the YF-22 that had the PIO in the approach and suffered a hard landing due to lag in the FBW system. No F-22A has crashed to date.

 

yeah, that's what I was talking about, I just couldn't find hard info so I guessed with what I could remember. Didn't it land with gear up?

 

if you watch the video it looks like the kind of flight controll fart that could cause a nose plant on takeoff.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Rambler 1-1

[JediMaster 451]

Yes, I don't recall if it was a low pass that got out of control or if it was a genuine landing attempt and he raised the gear because he (correctly) believed the gear down would result in more damage than a gears-up landing would.