the
skies of the Negev desert in Israel.
The F-15D (#957, nicknamed 'Markia Shchakim', 5 killmarks) was
used for the training of a new pilot in the squadron. Here is the
description of the event as described in "Pressure Suit":
"
At some point I collided with one of the Skyhawks, at first I didn't
realize it. I felt a big strike, and I thought we passed through the jet
stream of one of the other aircraft. Before I could react, I saw the big
fire ball created by the explosion of the Skyhawk.
The radio started to deliver calls saying that the Skyhawk pilot has
ejected, and I understood that the fire ball was the Skyhawk, that
exploded, and the pilot was ejected automatically. There was a
tremendous fuel stream going out of the wing, and I understood it was
badly damaged.
The aircraft flew without control in a strange spiral. I
re-connected the electric control to the control surfaces, and slowly
gained control of the aircraft until I was straight and level again. It
was clear to me that I should eject. When I gained control I said :
"Hey, wait, don't eject yet!". No warning light was on and
the navigation computer worked as usual; I just needed a warning light
in my panel to indicate that I missed a wing..." The instructor
ordered me to eject.
The wing is a fuel tank, and the fuel indicator showed 0.000 so I
assumed that the jet stream sucked all the fuel out of the other tanks.
However, I remembered that the valves operate only in one direction, so
that I might have enough fuel to get to the nearest airfield and land. I
worked like a machine, wasn't scared and didn't worry. All I knew was:
as long as the sucker flies, I'm gonna stay inside. I started to
decrease the airspeed, but at that point one wing was not enough.
So I went into a spin down and to the right. A second before I
decided to eject, I pushed the throttle and lit the afterburner. I
gained speed and thus got control of the aircraft again. Next thing I
did was lowering the arresting hook.
A few seconds later I touched the runway at 260 knots, about twice
the recommended speed, and called the tower to erect the emergency
recovery net. The hook was torn away from the fuselage because of the
high speed, but I managed to stop 10 meters before the net. I turned
back to shake the hand of my instructor, who urged me to eject, and then
I saw it for the first time - no wing
Click Pictures to Enlarge
The IAF (Israeli Air Force) contacted McDonnell Douglas and
asked for information about the possibility to land an F-15 with one
wing . MD replied that this is aero-dynamically impossible, as confirmed
by computer simulations... Then they received the photo.... After two
months the same F-15 got a new wing and returned to action. This is what
"Flight international, 8 June 1985" wrote about the incident:
"The most outstanding Eagle save was by a pilot from a foreign
air force. During air combat training his two seater F-15 was involved
in a mid-air collision with an A-4 Skyhawk. The A-4 crashed, and the
Eagle lost its right wing from about 2ft. outboard. After some confusion
between the instructor who said eject, and the student who outranked his
instructor and said no, the F-15 was landed at its desert base. Touching
down at 290 kt, the hook was dropped for an approach and engagement.
This slowed the F-15 to 100 kt, when the hook weak link sheared, and the
aircraft was then braked conventionally.
It is said that the student was later demoted for disobeying
his instructor, then promoted for saving the aircraft. McDonnell Douglas
attributes the saving of this aircraft to the amount of lift generated
by the engine intake/body and "a hell of a good pilot".