A-10 pilot lands safely after almost shooting himself down.

[ProfessorWes]

Lucky Air Force pilot of the week so far, after almost getting knocked out of the air by some sort of "gun malfunction."

http://www.127wg.ang.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1275644/no-second-guesses-selfridge-pilots-share-story-of-emergency-landing/

The Warthog will need some time in the body-and-fender shop after its wheels-up landing, but is expected to return to service.

 

[A.J.]

Amazing aircraft. Everybody loves the Warthog, especially its pilots.

 

[gramps]

Excellent story and outcome. Yep, good training is habit forming.
gramps

 

[contender]

Wow,,, best outcome possible.

 

[Merle1948]

amazing !!! :shock:

 

[blume357]

Okay, I have a question.... gun is in the nose... how does the malfunction cause the damage that was caused? I'm not an expert but I see two possibilities... well maybe three.... guy was flying so fast he ran into his bullets..... or the rounds were not made right and were traveling too slow and he flew into them.... or and they do mention this in the story... his wing man was behind him and also doing the strafing run.... the wing man shot him. or I guess the gun could have blown up....

 

[Fox Mike]

Tips of the barrels are in the nose. The gun itself is under the cockpit area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Republic_A-10_Thunderbolt_II#/media/File:GAU-8_in_A-10.jpg

 

[bogus bill]

There will be a pile of factory and military engineers going over it. I hope their findings will be made public. I have read accounts many years ago of P-51`s actually flying into their own bullets in dives etc during world war two. This sounds more like a explosion of some type ordinance to me right in the plane. Maybe not ammo at all but a rocket??
Off thread but I read a story of a Russian pilot shooting down a German that was able to crash land, get out and running for cover to some woods as there were Russian troops that would be hunting him. The Russian pilot was orbiting and saw him getting away. He landed, ran him down and choked him to death!! Now that's impressive!

 

[graygun]

There will be a pile of factory and military engineers going over it. I hope their findings will be made public. I have read accounts many years ago of P-51`s actually flying into their own bullets in dives etc during world war two. This sounds more like a explosion of some type ordinance to me right in the plane. Maybe not ammo at all but a rocket??
Off thread but I read a story of a Russian pilot shooting down a German that was able to crash land, get out and running for cover to some woods as there were Russian troops that would be hunting him. The Russian pilot was orbiting and saw him getting away. He landed, ran him down and choked him to death!! Now that's impressive!

That 30mm is a monster of a gun;I'm not surprised at the damage.

 

[Rick Courtright]

guy was flying so fast he ran into his bullets..... or the rounds were not made right and were traveling too slow and he flew into them....

Hi,

I think a lot of us have heard stories of "outrunning" bullets, but my $3 Cheap Chinese Calculator from Wally's tells me a projectile moving at 2500 fps is going better than 1700 mph. That seems hard to outrun at less than Mach 2!

Now a malfunction in the gun, such as a bad round creating a plugged barrel, sounds more possible...

Rick C

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Now a malfunction in the gun, such as a bad round creating a plugged barrel, sounds more possible...

Can you imagine the explosion of a 30mm round inside an airplane?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger

 

[Fox Mike]

The fact that the pilot sits in an armored 'tub' shows just how powerful the explosion was. Takes a lot to blow a canopy.

 

[Jeepnik]

guy was flying so fast he ran into his bullets..... or the rounds were not made right and were traveling too slow and he flew into them....

Hi,

I think a lot of us have heard stories of "outrunning" bullets, but my $3 Cheap Chinese Calculator from Wally's tells me a projectile moving at 2500 fps is going better than 1700 mph. That seems hard to outrun at less than Mach 2!

Now a malfunction in the gun, such as a bad round creating a plugged barrel, sounds more possible...

Rick C

If a plane is going 500 miles an hour and fires a gun, what is the velocity of the bullet? Bullet velocity from a stationary barrel + 500 mph. Granted it starts to slow way down as soon as it leave the barrel and encounters wind resistance, but at the moment it leaves the barrel it's going a good deal faster than the aircraft.

 

[Jeepnik]

By the way, I've personally witnessed some outstanding emergency landings, a few FUBARed "normal" landings, a couple of ejections and several auto rotations (including the one I rode down).

Training accounted for the good outcomes, and lack of it for the bad outcomes (the FUBARed landings were trainees).

Oh, and I can pretty much assure you the pilot set a land speed record heading away from the A-10. Heck, I once had a hard time keeping up with a many months pregnant woman who exited a C-141 after an engine fire.