F-15 crash at Nellis caused by violent spin - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

F-15 crash at Nellis caused by violent spin

Aircraft flaws and a mistake lasting only half a second led to the death of an Air Force pilot in July during a Red Flag exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., an accident investigation determined.

Lt. Col. Thomas Bouley, commander of the 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis, died July 30 after ejecting from his stricken F-15D Eagle when the plane was about 550 feet above the desert, said the president of the accident board, Brig. Gen. Robert Otto, a former F-15 safety officer and now commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Bouley’s passenger, a British observer pilot, ejected less than a second before Bouley and survived.

Things started to go wrong when Bouley put the jet into what should have been a routine dive starting at about 25,000 feet, Otto said. The plane went into a violent leftward spin because Bouley’s descent was momentarily steeper than allowed when the jet is flying with two external fuel tanks and unequal amounts of fuel in the tanks.

In normal circumstances, Bouley should have been able to regain control the jet after three spins, but a small imperfection in the radar dome at the plane’s nose distorted the jet’s aerodynamics, Otto said. The jet spun around 21 times in nearly 90 seconds before Bouley broke the plane out of the spin at about 3,800 feet.

The spin left Bouley disoriented and he was still trying to save the jet until bailing out, Otto said.