RIVERSIDE – (INT) – The F-16 that crashed Thursday near March Air Reserve Base had sustained a hydraulic failure before it plunged into a warehouse.

Base spokesman Reggie Varner said the pilot radioed the trouble before ejecting from his crippled fighter.

Varner said the F-16 had a hydraulic failure which led to the crash.

Air force officials revealed Friday the F-16 carried the ‘standard armament package’. A bomb disposal team took the ordinance to the nearby Ben Clark Training Center and destroyed it.

Air-to-air missiles which have been carried on the F-16 include the Lockheed Martin / Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder, Raytheon AMRAAM, Raytheon Sparrow, MBDA (formerly Matra BAe Dynamics) Skyflash and ASRAAM, and the MBDA R550 Magic 2. In April 2004, the F-16 first fired the new-generation AIM-9X Sidewinder, which is in full-rate production for the USAF.

Air-to-surface missiles carried on the F-16 include Maverick, HARM and Shrike missiles, manufactured by Raytheon, and anti-ship missiles include Boeing Harpoon and Kongsberg Penguin.

The F-16 debuted in 1974 and is still being produced at a cost of $17 million per aircraft. More than 4,600 have been built.

The Fighting Falcon's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, an ejection seat reclined 30 degrees from vertical to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system which helps to make it a nimble aircraft.

The F-16 that crashed was attached to the South Dakota Air National Guard in Sioux Falls, where citizen-airmen train and prepare to respond to state emergencies or the call of the President in times of crisis.

Story Date: May 20, 2019