Extreme Fogging Caused F-16 Landing Mishap

According to the official Accident Investigation Board, “extreme fogging” was the cause of an F-16’s long landing at OshKosh last year (caught on film), causing it to overrun the runway and slide into the grass.

the aircraft’s environmental control system caused extreme fogging that completely obscured the pilot’s visual cues and severely affected correct execution of normal landing procedures. The pilot applied the defog procedure without success. Without the necessary visual clues, the pilot did not apply adequate aerobraking which increased his landing distance.

The press release does not provide further details.

One comment

  • I’m no pilot, but it seems that once you are on the ground, and have no capability to know how much runway is left, stopping sooner would be better than stopping later. Why wouldn’t the pilot try to stop as quickly as safely possible?