Breaking- F-15 crash in the North Sea

Very few sources, but an F-15, flying out of the UK as CHOSEN04, has crashed in the North Sea. Search and Rescue is underway for the crew. Chosen is usually used by F-15Cs of the 493rd Fighter Squadron out of Lakenheath.


Updates as they are available.

Official confirmation--




SAR aircraft-

a reply to: Zaphod58


Mentioned in a tweet here twitter.com... Second tweet on that thread has a press release image from the 48th fighter wing?

A major operation is underway after the F-15 fighter jet came down near Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire, just south of Scarborough

news.sky.com...

Its big news here as it is right next door for my country (NL).

They say there are many resources devoted to the rescue.
Here is a link to what we as public can see is currently committed to this rescue effort, i am sure its much more then this in the background.

Twitter image

Seems like the F15 can take a punch or two tho...

Local news has the story running live updates:


Link


They're training over the North Sea daily and recently they've been doing lots of bombing runs.

Additionally, that flight pattern on your Flight Radar image is very common in that area due to various reasons. I spotted one last week -

An oil spill clear up 727 at low altitude.

Except C models are air to air only.
I heard while playing golf.....ptobably wstched it take off.



a reply to: and14263

a reply to: and14263

Those flight patterns happen almost daily up and down our east coast, and there is a lot of training and exercises ongoing at the moment. I missed the news breaking so just catching up, hope hes found safe.

a reply to: lakenheath24

BALTOPS is going on. Three B-52s were heading over the UK around the time of the accident.

They're at two hours since the last update on the search for the pilot. It's starting to not look good for him, with three other F-15s being in the area at the time of the accident, and multiple aircraft being in the search area fairly quickly, as well as Coast Guard being deployed immediately.

Wreckage has been found, but images from shore show heavy fog over the North Sea. The impact site was 74 miles out, so hopefully it will be clear that far out.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah that 2 hour update delay is a bit worrisome.... there are some deepwater areas around there too, certainly wont make the search easy.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I read about this earlier today, I hope that the pilot is alive and found soon but the North Sea is treacherous, cold and hypothermia assuming he managed to eject or survive the crash is a killer even in summer time.

God be with his family and friend's and I know they will do all they can to try to bring him or her home safely.

a reply to: Catch_a_Fire

Fortunately, IIRC, they wear survival suits over the North Sea so survival time is higher than if he wasn't. But that's still a long time if he's in a raft and conscious for him to not be talking and letting people know where he is.

The North Sea is far from warm even as we approach Summer. Was a HSE report here based on oil rig workers survival time even with immersion suits on it mentions survival time can be from minutes to half an hour Iirc?

www.hse.gov.uk...

You'd think these aircraft would be equipped with some sort of automatic signal immediately upon ejection. Do they have something like this?

It would also seem like crew harnesses would be equipped with an EPIRB which would trigger on ejection and/or certainly upon contacting the water.

Doesn't confirm a successful ejection and / or crew survival, but at least it would get search crews in the immediate area faster. It probably wouldn't be precise, but it would be close.

Don't they have these things onboard?

a reply to: solidshot

If he gets in the raft quickly, it can be several hours. If he's floating in the water, then it can be a few minutes.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The seat includes a full survival kit, including raft, flares, alternate signal kits, AN/PRC-90 and AN/PRC-106 radios, and marker dye. The PRC-90 won't transmit on 121.5, but it does have beacon mode, where it sends out a continuous signal for triangulation. The -106 can transmit on 121.5. The seat also has a beacon that is supposed to activate when it fires out of the aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I knew about the survival kit, flares and dye, but it seems like there would be something onboard the aircraft, using the aircraft radio / transponder / etc to confirm an ejection event. More power, bigger antenna, longer range communication. All the items you are describing are attached to parts (seat, crew, parachute, etc.) which separate from the aircraft. What I'm suggesting is something which is attached to the aircraft and uses the aircraft communications systems. As noted, it wouldn't get them to the exact location of the crew, but it would be close. This, in addition to the equipment which separates from the aircraft.

Just seems like there should be some sort of a real-time automated link to ATC/command to annunciate that the crew has ejected and the aircraft has been abandoned. I mean, it is a pretty irreversible event, and means that there's about a 100% the aircraft has been lost. So, it's about the single most important event which could ever take place.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That would require power, and depending on what happened, the aircraft could have lost all power, or broken up, or something happened to break that chain. Something like Missouri in 2007 is an example. The pilot had enough time to call knock it off before the aircraft split in two. The seat has a beacon that's supposed to activate automatically, but there's nothing like what you're describing.

Man hope they find the pilot safe. Lakenheath was my first base. Odds are I've fueled that 15 a bunch of times. They're such cool planes. Keeping my fingers crossed for the pilot.

Pilot has been located and confirmed to be deceased.