I've heard that story too, and the way I heard it was, the plane is so damn well designed and built, the pilot couldn't tell from the handling how badly the plane was damaged. Cockpit in an F-15 is well forward of the wings, so I guess its plausible that he didn't notice he lost a wing, though I'd have to question the pilot's situational awareness if true.
I heard some sort of EP and return to airport, low ceiling/vis, task saturation and clipped power line. Not sure.
Anytime, meaning back over friendly soil. Not even sure it was combat related. May have been collision with a wingman. Cant recall details... Bingo - training acident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision
My original comment was to the A10 picture you linked which was definitely combat. However the golden rule briefed in almost any jet is uncontolled, 10k or higher AGL. Controlled, in ejection envelope but much lower.
Sorry, muddied the waters. The missing wing story was the F15. Just comparing the durability and redundancy of two very diff aircraft. I'm no pilot so rest of the stuff you said is greek to me.
I think you're right on that one. It's kinda like stories from airline pilots, who had the same issues. Honestly, I think that they have special tickets for any air flight, and they don't have to use services like this ( website: https://airbusinessclass.com/popular-destinations/london ). Such online services for ordering airline tickets are useful only for us, simple passengers. They can fly wherever they want without tickets, as I know.
This is really weird. Last night before I went to sleep, for some reason, I thought about that crash, wondering if there had been any report about the cause. and today the thread showed back up.
The stories on the preliminary NTSB report from January indicate 12-18 months for the final report to come out, so its doubtful we'll see anything before 2021.
