F-15 Jet Comes Apart in Flight

From: Ron M.

Sent: May 10, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: F-15 Jet Comes Apart in Flight

Origins: It's a common phenomenon that when a spectacular disaster strikes, "real" photographs of it begin to circulate via e-mail that are actually recycled images from earlier, similar events (such as this set of photos) or images that aren't actually photographs (such as these movie passed off as photographs of the Space Shuttle Columbia exploding).  The images displayed above fit that latter category: The underlying incident they depict is a real one, but the images shown here aren't photographs of that incident, nor are they photographs at all.

On 2 November 2007, a Boeing Co. F-15C Eagle fighter jet flown by the Missouri Air National Guard crashed during a training exercise. The following day, the U.S. Air Force grounded the country's global fleet of 676  F-15s out of "airworthiness concerns" while they conducted inspections to investigate a possible structural failure in the aircraft.   An animated video simulation of the Missouri  F-15's mid-air breakup was prepared during the course of the investigation, and the images displayed above are frames taken from that simulation: See video below.

The Air Force ultimately determined that the cause of the accident was a defective metal support beam. Despite the spectacular nature of the accident, the pilot was able to eject safely and suffered only the (relatively) minor injuries of a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm, and some cuts and bruises. Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/f15crash.asp