F-16s Show Cracks; School’s Out for Top Gun Pilots

Structural cracks in the F-16 N Falcon aircraft, used to train Navy pilots, have forced the cancellation of the class at the famed Top Gun fighter pilot school, officials said Monday.

Navy pilots attending the school at the Miramar Naval Air Station fly the F-16s to simulate battle between U.S. and Soviet combat planes.

“They can’t do it (the training) without the F-16s. Right now, they’re trying to look at some alternatives to use as adversarial trainers,” said Cmdr. Mark Van Dyke, a Navy spokesman in Washington.

Officials said they planned to inspect all the Navy’s 26 F-16s to determine whether others should be grounded.

Similar cracks have been found in many of the 1,800 F-16s flown by Air Force pilots. An Air Force spokeswoman in Washington, Capt. Betsy Freeman, said the Air Force does not consider the cracks a safety risk and has instituted a strict maintenance program instead of grounding the planes.

Some of the planes were flown by the Air Force in the Persian Gulf War and performed without problems, officials said.

A Navy pilot at Top Gun said the cracks are not readily visible but are located in critical bulkhead areas of the aircraft that undergo tremendous stress during flight.

The pilot, who requested anonymity, said the cracks were discovered about eight months ago and have been found in 13 of the 14 F-16s used at the school.

The cancellation is a first at the school, where pilots chosen to attend the six-week course--known officially as Fighter Weapons School--consider it a highlight of their Navy careers.