The investigation into the crash of an F-16 on Mar. 23 has been completed. The pilot of the mishap aircraft was found to have misjudge the flight characteristic of the aircraft after selecting a wrong switch and choosing to eject from a recoverable jet.
The jet that crashed was part of a two-ship formation flight practicing intercept and air-to-air refueling.
During the mission, the leader decided to do an unplanned intercept of a civilian aircraft. When the pilot of the mishap aircraft had completed the interception, the wingman started to climb from a low-speed, low-altitude situation. While attempting to select the trailing edge flaps switch, the Digital Backup switch was selected instead.
By switching to Digital Backup, the flight laws of the F-16 change to a false state. This caused the leading and trailing edge flaps to retract, and the fighter began to shudder. The mishap pilot wrongly assessed that the aircraft had departed controlled flight and chose to eject four seconds after flipping the wrong switch.
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