Belgian F16 destroyed by fire...

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"Well, the good news is: The cannons work !
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Test Pass, check that box. "
 
Somewhat curious about this

I worked as an aircraft armament systems specialist (46270 aka 2W171) for 15 years on the A-10

At least on the A-10, none of the weapons systems are functional unless the landing gear is up; this can be overridden usually by the ground crew for testing systems etc; it isn't something a pilot would even touch.

The gun, as all other munition systems, on the A-10 is cleared and "pinned safe" right after the plane lands (end of runway) and unpinned (right at the end of runw)ay before takeoff; A live gun isn't sitting in a maintenance areas. It was always fun clearing the gun (rotating the cannon) while airliners were taxiing in the area.... as we shared runway with an international airport.

The A-10 gun is mechanically fired and I believe the F-16 uses electrically fired rounds; There would clearly be a safing mechanism.

regardless I'd be interested in the "perfect storm" of lapses that made this possible.
 
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Originally Posted by simple_gifts


I'd be interested in the "perfect storm" of lapses that made this possible.



See: "US Destroyer collides with commercial ship in the open sea"
 
Originally Posted by simple_gifts
The A-10 gun is mechanically fired and I believe the F-16 uses electrically fired rounds; There would clearly be a safing mechanism.

The C-130 Gunship could ruin somebody's day on the ground:
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by simple_gifts
Somewhat curious about this

I worked as an aircraft armament systems specialist (46270 aka 2W171) for 15 years on the A-10

At least on the A-10, none of the weapons systems are functional unless the landing gear is up; this can be overridden usually by the ground crew for testing systems etc; it isn't something a pilot would even touch.

The gun, as all other munition systems, on the A-10 is cleared and "pinned safe" right after the plane lands (end of runway) and unpinned (right at the end of runw)ay before takeoff; A live gun isn't sitting in a maintenance areas. It was always fun clearing the gun (rotating the cannon) while airliners were taxiing in the area.... as we shared runway with an international airport.

The A-10 gun is mechanically fired and I believe the F-16 uses electrically fired rounds; There would clearly be a safing mechanism.

regardless I'd be interested in the "perfect storm" of lapses that made this possible.



Exactly! Was a 43151 Crew Chief during 'Nam. All weps had to be "safed" by the weapons techs at a designated pad with the aircraft pointed in a "safe direction" before it was even allowed to be parked on the ramp. Seems like a lot of broken chain links here.......
 
I think the C-130 Gunship could ruin everybody's day on the ground.

I'm thinking there is a fair possibility this was an intentional act.
 
I'm with the rest of the mechanics who posted. As an A&P, I can't see how this could happen. Shouldn't be able to fire with weight on wheels, #1. #2, breaker should have been pulled/gun safety-pinned first thing when the pilot turned it over to maintenance, etc, etc.

I'd like to read the final report on this.
 
^^^ this...!

I reposted this news from another forum....from topic "joys of multiculturalism"....so I wonder myself if that was not an act of....you know what I mean
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Will see how it will evolve!
 
We avionics engineers call the logic to prevent unwanted events "interlocks", simply meaning a couple of conditions have to be met before the gun can fire.
It could be the tech here in question had applied logic voltage to those conditions, satisfying the "enable" for firing.
Specifically, the F-16 gun probably can't fire when WoW (Weight-on-Wheels) is true, aka, the airplane is on the ground. WoW is redundant (reliable) all by itself, using multiple raw sensors to form the condition result, but of course, since we're talking about gun firing, there might be one more logic condition added to make double-sure this thing never went off on the ground.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by jetmech1
Originally Posted by simple_gifts
Somewhat curious about this

I worked as an aircraft armament systems specialist (46270 aka 2W171) for 15 years on the A-10

At least on the A-10, none of the weapons systems are functional unless the landing gear is up; this can be overridden usually by the ground crew for testing systems etc; it isn't something a pilot would even touch.

The gun, as all other munition systems, on the A-10 is cleared and "pinned safe" right after the plane lands (end of runway) and unpinned (right at the end of runw)ay before takeoff; A live gun isn't sitting in a maintenance areas. It was always fun clearing the gun (rotating the cannon) while airliners were taxiing in the area.... as we shared runway with an international airport.

The A-10 gun is mechanically fired and I believe the F-16 uses electrically fired rounds; There would clearly be a safing mechanism.

regardless I'd be interested in the "perfect storm" of lapses that made this possible.



Exactly! Was a 43151 Crew Chief during 'Nam. All weps had to be "safed" by the weapons techs at a designated pad with the aircraft pointed in a "safe direction" before it was even allowed to be parked on the ramp. Seems like a lot of broken chain links here.......


Salute! Fellow 43151 here, RC-135 and E4-B.
 
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