Different agencies prepare to remove a Navy F-16 last week after the jet left the runway during routine training at Naval Air Station Lemoore. The F-16 came from the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center at Naval Air Station Fallon.
The U.S. Navy reports an F-16 from the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC) at Naval Air Station Fallon was successfully rescued last week after departing a runway during a routine training mission.
An official with the Naval Air Force in San Diego, Calif., told the Nevada News Group Wednesday the single-seat F-16 was on a routine training mission at NAS Lemoore (NASL) in central California southwest of Fresno. The F-16, an aggressor jet from Fallon, had been deployed to Lemoore from NAWDC to take part in a routine training mission. The Navy said the pilot was not hurt.
A post from the NASL Facebook page states F-16 fighter jets and their crews from NAWDC frequently fly to Lemoore, called home of Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, for basic fighter maneuvers air combat training or in support of exercises off the California coast.
A coordinated recovery involved NASL’s public works, transportation, air operations and avionics technicians as well as the California Air National Guard from Fresno, NASL Fed Fire, Edwards Air Force Base and American Crane Rental.
“This coordinated effort, which took precise planning, safely moved the jet back to the runway without any complications,” NASL said in a statement.
NAWDC operates the F-16s that were originally destined for Pakistan more than a decade ago but were instead stored. Half of the embargoed F-16s went to the U.S. Air Force and the other half to the Navy. When the F-16s began to arrive in Fallon, the jets sported the Pakistani paint schemes but were slowly re-painted in aggressor markings. In total 14 F-16s were delivered to Fallon.