F-16 in Afghanistan may have crashed due to a big honking spider in the cockpit - Photos

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/08/03/215843/pictures-spider-may-have-caused-afghanistan-f-16-fighter-aircraft-to-crash.html

PICTURES: Spider may have caused Afghanistan F-16 fighter aircraft to crash

A Dutch air force Lockheed Martin F-16AM Fighting Falcon that crashed on 31 August 2006 in Afghanistan while on a standard two-aircraft support mission from Kabul may have gone down because the pilot, who did not eject and died in the crash, was distracted by a spider in the cockpit.

Dutch investigators were unable to establish the cause of the crash, as flight data recorders were not recovered and may have been taken by locals. However, vermin in the cockpit was identified as a possible cause. snip

But an F-16 was once grounded when a camel spider was found in the cockpit, and in this case a spider may have caused the pilot to shift his attention from flying the aircraft to fighting this arachnid, the investigators suggested.

About 20min into the fatal flight the dead pilot's wingman received a mayday call and saw the F-16 in a 30e_SDgr bank and 20e_SDgr nose-down position roll tumbling to the ground at a rate of 100-120°/s.

About 30s later the aircraft was diving with an 80e_SDgr nose-down angle of attack, and then crashed into a hillside with a flash fire on impact.

[stirlingsliver]

1. Picture Is On Snopes

The same picture is on snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp

[Buzz Clik]

2. Just a little spidey? Er ... check out the pics.

[Bill219]

3. Holy Crap!!!!

I would have had a heart attack if I was anywhere near that thing...especially locked in a small area with one like a cockpit

[Sequoia]

26. OMG! Me Too!

I can't even stand Potato Bugs, they're pretty scary but then again have sort of a weired cute face.

[Perky]

28. that is not a spider it's a lobster!!!!!!

[thunder rising]

4. I came out of the air for wasps one time

I was a student and wasps had built a nest in the air ducts, on my second solo I opened the air duct and the cockpit filled with wasps.

[Captain Hilts]

5. I would have wrecked the plane too, with a spider in the cockpit. nt

[DemoTex]

6. Famed aerobatic pilot Bevo Howard killed in 1971. Black widow bite?

A few days after the October 1971 crash (Greenville, NC) that killed Bevo Howard, an FAA examiner reported that he had found a black widow spider in the cockpit of Howard's wrecked Beucker Jungmeister. The FAA examiner claimed that Bevo had been bitten by the spider and theorized that the bite had caused the crash. No autopsy reports ever surfaced to support this claim.


Believe me, the man could fly an airplane!

[commander bunnypants]

7. Great nightmares tnight

yea, I would of crashed too.

Poor guy

CB

[mike_c]

8. oh please-- solifugids are cool and harmless...

...and one need never "fight" with one-- they're pretty delicate. One smack would turn it into a bad stain on the inside of the cockpit.

[NNN0LHI]

9. I agree Mike but I know people who faint from just looking at pictures of spiders

They fall right over. I have seen it happen. (That is why I posted the photo warning in my subject line.)

This fellow may have also had a great fear of spiders? He may have passed out cold?

Don

[NeedleCast]

11. Arachnophobia

I have it. I'm a 270 pound dude who spent five years in the army, is extensively tattooed, has a high tolerance for pain, is not afraid to get dirty...and I fucking HATE spiders. They just freak me. I have no logical explanation for this, as I know, deep down, that 99.99% of them are no threat to me.

That doesn't stop me from sending my girlfriend in to kill them when I find one in the bathtub. Lawd forbid I wake up and find one in the bed.

I saw several of those suckers in Afghanistan and if I were confined in a cockpit with one you can bet I'd roll the dice on ejecting and let the crashing plane take care of the spider.

[No Coercion]

13. me too

Yeah, I'm not a big spider fan, either. I encountered my fair share of camel spiders in Afghanistan, and those were definitely not the highlights of my tour. They really creeped me out when they'd suddenly dart across the path in front of me when the sun was almost completely gone--fast little things. Of course, we were all under the apparently mistaken impression that they numb you and then start eating you while you're asleep--and that did not help my peace of mind one bit!

[NeedleCast]

14. Welcome to DU

Yeah, we got sold on that rumor pretty quick too. They can move very quickly and jump like champions. I remember very clearly, about two weeks after I got to AF, one jumping out of tree in front of the hummer I was riding shotgun in and sailing about 20 feet down an incline. Let me tell you how well I slept that night.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as the pilot is safe, I'll trade an F-16 for a dead camel spider. That's a good deal in my book.

:P

[BeHereNow]

21. Welcome to DU No Coercion.

BHN

[No Coercion]

22. Thanks!

[Beausoir]

18. I won't even click the link to the photo. Gawd..I hate them. I know a woman who crashed her car

because a bee flew in the window. Yikes.

[kestrel91316]

17. I dunno. I would probably have a fricking heart attack and die before

I could get around to crashing the plane.....

[hootinholler]

19. That thumb at the bottom of the article doesn't look unharmed to me.

Just sayin.

-Hoot

[WilliamPitt]

20. You know this, now I know this

but neither of us are going 700mph in a fighter wearing helmets and visors. Some giant hairy spider-like thing starts crawling on me in that situation? I'm not thinking "Awwww, cute little solifugid." I'm thinking "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!!!!!"

[mike_c]

35. lol....

Yeah, there is that.

[billyoc]

27. Little smack? I would have put my fist through the fuselage.

Have you seen the size of those things?! :scared:

[Zodiak]

33. Agreed

And the wind scorpions in Iraq are not as big as the "famous" picture makes them look. That was a clever photograph. The biggest ones grow to be about a 6 inches long....scary, but harmless. They can pinch you pretty good, though.

And no poison.

[Marrah_G]

10. I would have hit eject if one of those was in the plane

If I was still conscious that is. I have a nasty, irrational phobia, cant even look at pictures of em.

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. That thing comes out? I punch the fuck out!! EOM (even if it means End Of Me!)

[Ezlivin]

12. The spider didn't have a g-suit on

I wonder if the pilot could have just performed a couple of high-g banks and killed the spider?

When I was flying my hero was the pilot who had a horrendous bird strike. The bird blew out the front windscreen, bloodied the pilot's head and smashed his glasses. The pilot kept his cool and landed the aircraft safely.

[NeedleCast]

15. Probably Not

In terms of their ability to withstand G-force, humans pretty much suck. Spiders are incredibly strong and have a high fortitude for their size. Plus, since they're very light, the pilot would literaly have to produce enough Gs to crush it against a hard surface.

[NNN0LHI]

16. My luck the first high-g bank I tried would cause the critter to smash right into my face

And then he would hold on there for dear life as I was shitting my g-suit.

Don

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. My hero was an A-6 instructor pilot.

He was flying an A-6 tanker and the nugget behind him misjudged the closing speed at night in El Centro, CA. The nugget REAR ENDED his plane and knocked the whole rudder and one side of the horizontal stab OFF OF THE AIRPLANE. He flew the bird back to NAF El Centro while ordering his B/N not to punch out. Word was that the B/N cried the whole time. He landed safely.

When we came back on duty the next morning, I thought some Plane Captain was in big trouble for an accident while towing the bird to the washrack or something.

A fisherman found the port side horizontal stab floating in the Salton Sea.

[trof]

23. I woulda punched outa that suckah SO fast.

"You want this airplane, bud?
It is YOURS!"
whew

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

29. I read once, that if you get bit by a brown recluse spider

put a nitro patch over it. Off topic, sorry.

[Elspeth]

30. "...flight data recorders were not recovered and may have been taken by locals."

Why would the locals take them?

[NeedleCast]

32. Scrap

Having been there, there are areas where the locals will carry off anything of value, that may be valuable or that at some point in the future has the potential to have value. Not bashing them or anything...just kinda the way it is. If they were tribal locals, they'd carry it off just because it was interesting to them without, most likely, having any clue what it was.

[CRF450]

31. Wanna see how some of them will react to a camel spider?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3iH2C4We00&mode=related&search=

[undeterred]

34. Thats not a spider, its an ALIEN!