F-16 fighter jet splash down in Pacific near Kurils

Published time: July 23, 2012 07:37
Edited time: July 23, 2012 11:37
A F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet (Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes)

An American F-16 fighter jet went down in a Russian exclusive economic zone near the Kuril Islands on Sunday. The pilot successfully ejected before the jet plummeted into the waters below.

“The Kamchatsky territorial naval rescue center reported at 8:30 am local time (8:30 pm GMT) that an aircraft was in distress over the Pacific Ocean near the northern Kurils,” Andrey Orlov, a spokesman for the Russian Border Guard Service in the Far East said. Later on it turned out to be an American F-16.

The Russian Antias border patrol vessel and an An-72 patrol aircraft were dispatched to the crash zone, though the pilot was ultimately  picked up by  the Japanese the Hokko Maru fishery research vessel about five hours after the crash.

Orlov says the fighter jet sank almost immediately after the crash. The Antias patrol vessel that arrived at the scene has not found even a petrol spot on the surface of the ocean, so the crash site poses no threat to ecology, the Russian border guard reported.

The crew of the Hokko Maru is expected to hand over the rescued pilot to an American patrol vessel in the Pacific.

The 35th Fighter Wing’s F-16 fighter jet was reportedly hopping from Misawa Air Base in Japan to Alaska.

Another incident with an F-16 fighter jet occurred on May 4 when the fighter went down during a training flight in Utah's western desert.

Comments (23)

Hey, Practical Advisor (unregistered) 26.07.2012 01:05

Practical Advisor (unregistered) wrote in #1Firi (unregistered) wrote in #20michael levy (unregistered) wrote in #14 Firi, As an aussie i'd much prefer to buy Russian equipment. The junk (read JS35) America is trying to supply us , just keeps on getting dearer by the day so much so that customers would do well to dump the project. It does'nt fly now and probably never will. At least if we bought Russian equipment, it would probably arrive on time and in budget, not like the yanks continually extending the project at great cost to all of it's allies, not itself. Let's face it, if you want to get "ripped off", buy American!!!!!!!(read , made in China, badged in America.)You are correct about that, but I don't see why commentators here embrace the SU-35 or SU-37. Since there isn't any production of such aircrafts. The closest available model would be SU-30 MKI.You mean not for western exports? Chaves is getting some._______________ ____________________ ____________________ ______I suppose you mean Chavez of Venezuela? Venezuela is western, just not NATO. Not everyone in the west is allied with the U.S.A. or NATO.

0

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Drakula (unregistered) 24.07.2012 20:57

What does Obama have to say?
I'm sure Zionist thugs like Jew Lieberman, John McCain and Mitt Romney will be calling for retaliation if Russia did indeed shoot the plane down.
Things are definitely heating up.

+1

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Practical Advisor (unregistered) 24.07.2012 16:12

Firi (unregistered) wrote in #20
michael levy (unregistered) wrote in #14
 Firi, As an aussie i'd much prefer to buy Russian equipment. The junk (read JS35) America is trying to supply us , just keeps on getting dearer by the day so much so that customers would do well to dump the project. It does'nt fly now and probably never will. At least if we bought Russian equipment, it would probably arrive on time and in budget, not like the yanks continually extending the project at great cost to all of it's allies, not itself. Let's face it, if you want to get "ripped off", buy American!!!!!!!(read , made in China, badged in America.) You are correct about that, but I don't see why commentators here embrace the SU-35 or SU-37. Since there isn't any production of such aircrafts. The closest available model would be SU-30 MKI. You mean not for western exports? Chaves is getting some.

+1

Undo

View all comments (23)
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