page_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (2000–2009)
section_title: 2003
hierarchical_section_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (2000–2009) / 2003
caption_attribution_description: English: Split-second shot MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejects from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds number six aircraft less than a second before it impacted the ground at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Sept. 14. Stricklin, who was not injured, ejected after both guiding the jet away from the crowd of more than 60,000 people and ensuring he couldn't save the aircraft. This was only the second crash since the Air Force began using F-16 Falcons for its demonstration team in 1982. The ACES II ejection seat performed flawlessly. Français&#160;: Pilote d'un avion F-16 des Thunderbirds utilisant son siège éjectable une seconde avant l'impact au sol. Le capitaine Stricklin est arrivé à éloigner son avion de la foule de 60 000 personnes massée ce jour-là pour voir le spectacle aérien. Après avoir constaté l'impossibilité de récupérer son appareil, il a activé son siège éjectable, qui a parfaitement fonctionné. Le pilote s'en est sorti indemne. Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, États-Unis. 14 Septembre 2003.
context_page_description: This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. com archives or the aviation-safety.net database. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
context_section_description: 17 January
  A US Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D Hornet crashes into the Pacific Ocean off of MCAS Miramar, California, due to a material failure during a functional check flight with one engine shut down. Both crew eject safely and are recovered.
  19 February
   An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ilyushin Il-76MD, 15-2280, c/n 0063471155, formerly registered YI-AND, crashes into a mountain in poor weather near Shahdad, Iran. All 18 crew and 284 passengers on board were killed.
  20 February
  A Pakistan Air Force Fokker F-27-200, 10254, of 12 Squadron, crashes near Kohat, Pakistan when it strikes a ridge at the 3,000-foot (910 m) level (915 m) AMSL, obscured by clouds. All 17 people on board died, including Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir. PAF spokespersons said on 22 May that pilot error was to blame.
  27 February
  A Canadian Forces Air Command Sikorsky CH-124B Sea King helicopter, 12401, of 12 Wing, crashes on the deck of HMCS Iroquois in the Persian Gulf. No one was killed, but the ship's mission in the Gulf was postponed.
  22 March
  During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, two Royal Navy Westland Sea King ASaC.7 Airborne early warning (AEW) helicopters, XV650, 'CU-182', and XV704, 'R-186', collide in mid-air five miles (8 km) from their aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal while one had been leaving on a mission as the other returned from the same operation. One American exchange pilot on board, a former E-2C Hawkeye pilot formerly from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron One One Five, was killed. It was later revealed that the three main contributory factors noted by the Board of Inquiry coincided with the three main areas of degradation between the older AEW Mk2 and the upgraded ASaC Mk7; all three had been identified and mitigation put in hand, but two cancelled by an unauthorised official and the other rejected by the RN.
  22 March
  RAF Tornado GR4 ZG710 shot down by a US Patriot Missile Battery, killing both crew.  It later emerged that the primary cause (failure to properly integrate IFF) had been identified in 1998 but corrective action rejected.
  1 May
  A Boeing C-32B or Boeing 757-23A, wearing what may or may not have been a U.S. Air Force serial number, 00-9001, c/n 25494/611, and assigned to the 486th Flight Test Squadron, which is known to be an Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, unit, suffers a ~0300 hrs. landing accident at North Auxiliary Airfield, South Carolina, when the nose gear collapses in a heavy landing. Thought to be operated by the United States State Department (a standard deflection for the Central Intelligence Agency and their Special Operations Group (SOG) / Special Activities Division (SAD) in support of Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST) activities). Air Force spokeswoman Major Linda Pepin said that there were no serious injuries, "There was a crew of 10 on board. Two sustained minor injuries and were treated and released." The nose gear on the plane collapsed and the plane's position on the ground is not parallel to the runway. Major Pepin stated that the incident will be investigated in days to come by an Air Force safety board, "In any case where there's an incident that involves aircraft safety to ensure that whatever happened in this incident we can avoid next time." Pepin said that they don't know how long the aircraft will stay on the runway, "It's really too early to know when it will get it up and moving." North Auxiliary Airfield is used for C-17 Globemaster III training.
  18 August
  A Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M-4K, of 8 ELT, flying at 3000 meter (10,000 ft) altitude, during antiaircraft artillery exercises, is shot down at 1600 hrs. within the confines of the Wicko Morskie range, near Ustka by 2K12 Kub missile. Another account ascribes the downing merely to a "technical malfunction". The pilot, Lt. Col. Andrzej Andrzejewski, safely ejected and alighted in Baltic Sea 21 km (11 nmi (20 km; 13 mi)) from the coast, and – after one-and-half-hour spent in water – picked up by Mil Mi-14PS SAR helicopter from Siemirowice Air Base. Andrzejewski will subsequently perish in 23 January 2008, CASA C-2
caption: Captain Chris Stricklin ejects from his F-16 at an air show in September 2003.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejects from the USAF Thunderbirds number six aircraft less than a second before it impacted the ground at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Sept. 14. Stricklin, who was not injured, ejected after both guiding the jet away from the crowd of more than 60,000 people and ensuring he couldn't save the aircraft. This was only the second crash since the Air Force began using F-16 Falcons for its demonstration team in 1982. The ACES II ejection seat performed flawlessly. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D1X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:01:30 17:38:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "852", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1456", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1570", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3886", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:09:14 16:38:21", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:09:14 16:38:21", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "63", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "63", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "63", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1180", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1368", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "450", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}