The burst of a tire and the subsequent fire in another one in the landing gear of an F-16M caused the pilot to abort the take-off. Plane was stopped by checkpoints. pilot was unharmed.
A Portuguese Air Force F-16M fighter (FAP), took off this Thursday afternoon from one of the runways of the Air Base (BA) 11, in Beja, following a landing gear problem, the restraint barriers have been activated to stop the aircraft.
Lidador NotĂcias found that the accident occurred around 14,30 hours, when the aircraft that was in the final part of the take-off, which was made from south to north, suffered the blowout of one of the tires followed by the fire of another.
The pilot aborted the take-off maneuver, rolling the aircraft down the runway, having been raised the nets in the north top, causing the plane to come to a standstill before leaving the asphalt. The aircraft was removed to one of BA11's hangars in order to be repaired and remain operational..
O F-16M, attached to the Fleet 201 “Hawks”, Air Base (BA) 5, Monte Real (Leiria), participates in the Real Thaw exercise 2022 (RT22) which has the nerve center in BA 11, and runs until the next day 8 July, with the participation of 54 aircraft from seven countries: Portugal, Belgium, Spain, U.S, France Lithuania and the Netherlands.
In Portugal, the first accident involving an F-16 fighter jet took place in 2002. The aircraft crashed at BA5, when trying to land. The pilot, an experienced operator with more than 1.500 flight hours, died during the accident.
Lidador NotĂcias posed several questions to FAP's Public Relations, whose reply did not arrive in good time.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
Photo: Portuguese Air Force
