🤯The AIB dropped on the 3 Dec 2025 Thunderbirds F-16 crash near Trona. F-16CM 92-3881, F100-PW-229. Three variable vanes in the 4th and 5th compressor stages were turned. That created irregular airflow and high-cycle fatigue on the 5th and 6th stage blades. Both blades separated in flight. Engine came apart at low altitude. With thrust gone the pilot ran the checklist. CAPS, SEC, air restart attempt. Fought it for 4 minutes 21 seconds. Ejected at 467 feet AGL, 151 knots, and walked away with minor injuries. $33.5 million jet destroyed on the lakebed. No one else was hurt. Board cleared the pilot and the maintainers. Everything they were required to inspect, they inspected. The problem sits in a section you cannot see without pulling the engine and splitting the rear compressor case. Borescope ports skip those stages. Same family of vane issue showed up in another F-16 just 20 months earlier. The part people will remember is the spectacular camera footage of the ejection. The part they should remember is that some failure modes live in places field-level maintenance was never designed to look.🇺🇸
Image credits: @usairforce
#F16 #Thunderbirds #AIB #USAF