F-16 Upgrades In Wake Of Double Crash; Thai Defence Ministry

[tigermonkey]

According to a us soldier, drinking in my bar last night, it was the american navigator foult, because they got the airplain to close that was why it happent.

That really doesn't make sense, the navigator doesn't fly the plane. he only plots courses and assists in various other duties.

Unless they were flying IFR the pilot should have seen the other plane a long way away.

Greg

Now I am totally confused -- what navigator ?? These were F-16A/B aircraft -- the A designates the single seat version and the B designates the twin seat version. The article says that they were " F-16AB ", but does not specify one or two seats. All along they have talked about two pilots ejecting, and nothing about any other personnel ejecting.

The RTAF bought only a few of the two seat version. I presume that these were used as trainers ( student in the front), since they have complete duplicate controls.

In the cases where the twin seat Viper would be used in combat, the second seat would be occupied by a WSO ( Weapons Systems Oficer) and not a navigator.

I think the US soldier was pulling someone's leg -- or simply too drunk to know what he was talking about.

By the way, IFR is strictly used in civil aviation and not military, unless the military aircraft is being flown in a civil avaiation controlled airspace.

Edited February 16, 2011 by tigermonkey

[smedly]

I'll put money on it they where wearing helmets but riding against the flow of traffic then ignored a red light, some things never change

[elshaheen]

They are outfitting them with Training Wheels for better navagation.