Disintegrating tail - USAF F-16 emergency stops the show! (RIAT)

This shows the moment what looks like the trailing edge of the right horizontal stabilizer broke away, followed by a stream of debris from the same area.

Various reports suggest the problem was "spontaneous delamination of the stabilizer's composite material". I have checked the raw footage very carefully and can see no evidence of anything striking the tail.

Almost immediately the pilot abandoned the display, climbing above the cloud base and staying there for around 10 minutes to check the situation, before descending and landing safely.

21 July 2019

Harm Swinkels has kindly provided links to still photos of the initial separation event:

[Blexsta]

40 years old, 76:1 air-to-air kill:loss ratio, second only to the F-15 (which is also older).
By the time it will be phased out, the design will be over 50 years old.

A benchmark multirole plane for all other nations.

[JonathanWinton]

Excellent video. A lot of us following RIAT were quite worried when the first photos of it came out.
Good work by the pilot to bring it back safely. Liked.

[Michael-xolw]

If anyone would have caught it, it would have been you. Excellent work.

[headfella]

Had a somewhat similar situation with a Cessna 402 C model resulting in a severe elevator flutter. Fortunately the flutter ceased at 140 Knots airspeed. It was so bad I made preparations to land on a roadway but I continued on to the airport at reduced speed all the while praying the elevator would stay on the aircraft. I never felt comfortable flying that bird after that. About a year later it crashed due to severe airframe icing.

[Frankesteinnl]

Ductape, so strong, even the airforce uses oh wait...
Nice catch Snug!

[heffron]

Looks like it happened fairly close to where i was standing. I reviewed some pictures i took and discovered I snapped two photos showing the edge breaking loose from the stabilizer.

[DasPenguin]

For all you internet engineers out there who know everything:

Those demo Vipers get abused a LOT more than normal F-16s. A normal service F-16 isn't pulling 9G all day every day - it's a LOT of stress on the aircraft.

[lifeguardeight]

So this is why these things have structural limits eh?

[remum]

That´s the difference between normal and really good Videos...in good Videos you can see more Details :-) Thanks flugsnug

[ericlozen]

Great Footage ~ It's amazing how camera/video technology has evolved over the years. I'm not trying to be morbid or funny but if this technology was around when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded the footage would have probably been too graphic for the average person to see.

[CrisURace]

Woa!! Good capture. Glad everyone is safe!

[saadilyas]

Great capture. Also excited to know you were at RIAT. Missed it myself this year but your videos should make up for it. Thanks.

[hashteraksgage]

Disintegration?
He must like The Cure...

[martin.B]

Great footage! Lockheed Martin might be interested 😎

[sevenhornets]

Not a 16 guy but a testament to the robust nature of the platform.

[ronwade]

You know what's fluttering when it comes off!

[TheMightySpotter]

How do you make your video's so smooth?

[ronwade]

You know what's fluttering when it comes off

[fowler]

And for all the comments jumping on the fluttering bandwagon, this is not fluttering. Fluttering is an rapid oscillation around an axe that either gets damped by changing the frequency of the oscillation, or either gets amplified in which case the structure attached to this part would self destroy faster than you can read this.

[althepsyphros]

Now for the task of tracking down the debris and taking home the souvenir!!

Who's with me?