A bomb technician confused the gas and brake pedals on an Air Force bomb-loading tractor, causing the machine to ram into a parked F-16 jet and spark a fire that caused $30 million in damages last November, an Air Force accident investigation board found.
Though the report faulted the technician’s “situational awareness” with causing the mishap, it noted a bizarre design quirk on tractors the Air Force uses to load bombs on its planes, which are known as “jammers.” The Air Force uses two mostly similar models of tractors, but the brake and gas pedal layouts on the two versions are so different that drivers use different feet to control the brakes, depending on which model they are driving.
The accident, the report found, was likely rooted in a technician becoming momentarily confused by the layout of the pedals beneath his feet, pushing hard on the jammer’s gas pedal while believing he was pushing the brake.
“It is more likely than not that [the driver] was engaging the accelerator pedal when he thought he was engaging the brake pedal,” the report concluded. “This is supported by eyewitness testimony that [the tractor] ‘jerked back’ and accelerated backwards.”
The report, released on Oct. 17 by U.S. Air Forces Europe – Air Forces Africa but finished at least two months earlier, outlines the many issues along the way that led to the mishap, when a weapons loader or “jammer” crashed into an F-16. Essentially, one error cascaded into the next, creating a snowball effect that eventually heavily damaged a F-16 fighter.
No one was badly hurt in the mishap though the driver suffered bruises and abrasions when he was momentarily pinned under a second plane and then thrown off the machine as it rolled. The driver was part of a crew loading munitions onto an F-15 Strike Eagle parked next to the F-16 when the accident occurred. The Nov. 17, 2023 incident took place at an undisclosed location in southwest Asia.
At the heart of the accident, the board found, was a moment of confusion, “loss of situational awareness” and “panic” by the technician. The airman had not driven a bomb-loading tractor in three months, the board said, and was not “proficient” in its use. Additionally, the board found, poor maintenance of the jammer contributed to its gas pedal sticking in place once the driver was thrown off of it,
An accident loading bombs
The accident occurred as a three-person team of weapons loaders worked on an F-15E, using an MJ-1 B/C weapons loader, also known as a “jammer” or “bomb lift.” At approximately 10 p.m. local time, a member of the crew was driving the jammer in reverse and found that he couldn’t stop it. The jammer slammed into the F-15E, pinning the driver to the dashboard of the weapons loader. The jammer then hit a tire on the jet followed by a fuel tank, throwing the driver off of the vehicle. The jammer kept moving, this time towards the F-16 about 70 feet away, crashing into its right fuel tank. That fuel then leaked out, and a spark from the jammer ignited a fire that quickly “engulfed” the weapons loader and part of the F-16.
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Images in the report, as well as additional ones posted to social media but not included in the official findings, show the fuselage of the jet heavily burned. No one was seriously injured, but the accident investigation board found significant issues with maintenance standards and poor documentation also played a role in contributing to the mishap.
Investigators found that the operator of the jammer lost situational awareness of what was around him. When the jammer started to careen out of his control, the report said, he failed to carry out emergency shutdown procedures.
Investigators noted that one major issue was confusion over the model jammer being used. Two models used by the Air Force are similar and look nearly identical, but have key differences, including the location of the brake pedal. One model that was used has the pedal only one inch away from the accelerator pedal. The other has an 11-inch gap.
Images via the Air Air Force accident investigation board.
The accident board concluded that the two different layouts of pedals that Air Force troops might encounter likely caused the moment of confusion at the heart of the accident.
Once the driver fell off, the report found, the tractor continued at up to 18 miles per hour toward the F-16 because its hydraulic throttle became stuck due to poor maintenance. Tests of the machine’s hydraulic fluid found it was “within the most contaminated, or dirtiest, measurement level represented in the Society of Automotive Engineers’ standard for classification of particle contamination in oils and fluids.”
The jammer was also the third tractor on the flightline that the crew tried to use that night. One jammer would not start while a second one was found to not be working properly.
The accident investigation board found several other issues that played a role in leading to the fire. Maintainers at the undisclosed base had a “loose culture of adherence to Air Force standards and technical procedures.” That included incorrect maintenance procedures, missing documentation and using equipment with “apparent deficiencies.”
Details about the exact location or mission these fighter jets were on were not made clear in the report. The 48th Fighter Wing, based out of RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, deployed to southwest Asia in October 2023. The 494th Fighter Squadron, part of that wing, took part in intercepting missiles and drones fired by Iran towards Israel in April 2024.
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