tagged: Anastasakis iosif, aviation F-16, Balatsoukas A, Botsakis P, causes, Chrissi, collide, collision, Crete, F-16, F-16 Fighter Falcon, Greece, Greek F-16, scenarios

Greek F-16 Collision: 2nd Pilot dies;Collision-Scenarios; Equipment

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics

Captain Iosif -Sifis Anastasakis, 35,  severely injured during the two Greek F-16 collision  three days ago, passed away Sunday morning.

The pilot of the double-seater F-16  that collided off  the island of Crete, had suffered multiple fractures in the pelvis, lesions in the brain and lung burrowing. According to doctors the biggest problem was the brain funtion that had suffered irreparable damages caused by severe head injuries.  Captain Anastasakis  leaves behind a one year old girl and a wife, pregnant on their second child. He was a native from Gergeri Heraklion (Crete) , where his funeral will take place today at 5:30 pm.

The funeral of Cpt. Balatsoukas, who was instantly killed, took place yesterday in Arta.

Lt. Botsakis has fractures on the legs.

The two Greek F-16 Fighting Falcons collided mid-air  on August 26, 2010 at 2.05 pm during training exercises, 15 miles west of the island of Chrissi,  south of  the island of Crete. The exercise scenario was foreseeing an air combat (scenario 4 vs. 2) that consisted of six (6) aircraft. The  F-16 fighter jets were from the  340 ”Fox” Squadron and belonged to the 115th Combat Wing , stationed in Souda, Crete. Some greek newspapers claimed that the accident occurred at 1.800-2.000 ft (650 m).

Anastasakis and Botsakis managed to eject with their seats and were picked up from the sea by fishing boats.

The majority of the scenarios speak of the one-seatter to have rammed  the double-seater from beneath and most probably from the back. Cpt. Anastasakis was sitting on the back seat of the double-seater, while his co-pilot Lt. Botsakis,  in the front. There is a strong suspicion that Anastasakis’s injuries caused by the collision.  For secure information one has to wait for the outcome of Hellenic Air Force investigation results.

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                               F-16 one- & double-seater over bridge of Rio/Greece

Flight hours of  Pilots and Fighter  Jets

According to Hellenic Air Force:

Captain Anastasios Balatsoukas, 33 (dead), had 1.202 flight hours – 580 in F-16; pilot one-seater

Captain Iosif Anastasakis, 35 (dead), had 1.955 flight hours (1.456 in F-16); pilot double-seater

Lieutnant Pavlos Botzakis, 25 (injured), had 431 flight hours (110 in F-16); co-pilot double seater

One-seater F-16 (number 522) was delivered February 2004 and had 1.315 flight hours

Double-seater F-16 (number 604) was delivered June 2003 and had 1.130 flight hours

Causes: Scenarios

While a special committee of the Hellenic Air Force is investigating the issue, Greek defense news website www.defencenet.gr  claims  that the  two F-16 did not collide during a ‘dog fight’ as it was originally leaked to the press. Defencenetreports that the two F-16 belonged to the same formation and that “apparently in a sudden maneuver, probably to avoid radar or oncoming projectile collided with each other”. The website also reports that during the collision  the  bottom of the double-seater and the top of the one-seater were hit.

Further the website develops the scenario that the one-seater, probably was exercising a virtual “immelman attack” and that ‘attacking’ from behind to ‘target’ a jet form another formation, it hit the double-seater’s bottom in the middle…. The immelman attack is a tactic  very difficult to run on low altitudes of  1.000 ft.

The pilot of one-seater F-16 was killed on the spot. The seat was apparently automatically skyrocketed due to the collision.

Greekdefence.net  claims that the one-seatter to have rammed  the double-seater from beneath or slightly from the sides or even from the back.

Lacking Equipement for Fighter Jets and Pilots

Defencenet also claims that the F-16s were not equipped with a AACMI (Αutonomus Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation), an advanced, second-generation GPS-based ACMI system with an early warning collision avoidance system that enables  safe real-time air-to-air exercises.

Strategyreport.gr, another Greek website, claims that the pilots are not equipped with Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)