Fighter Pilot Runs Out of Fuel Over Downtown

I watch a lot of your videos, and aviation videos in general.
As a charter pilot, and career instructor, who has never crashed, nor landed with only 5 minutes of fuel left, this one had me on the edge of my seat, cheering for this pilot. Thank God it all worked out perfectly. If anything ever goes seriously wrong for me up there, I want that controller on the radio. Calm, cool, and helpful!

This was fantastic!! The ATC was phenomenal and you can tell how much training that pilot has had. I was on the edge of my seat!

Kelsey, as much as I love to hear your dulcet tones explaining things I need never have an understanding of, I could listen all day to this controller reading a telephone directory.

Another great video showcasing excellent teamwork.

We've seen pilots and ATC not work together on this channel because 1 or both had attitude problems, mostly by far pilots, but here we have a case where the pilot needs help and didn't act like a jerk, the ATC came up with a plan and got him landed safely. HUGE thumbs up all around.

I like your channel, but some of the nfo you offer, it can be used just as well by the bad guys... fmfs...

Why is a fighter jet flying over a highly populated city again?

You could say its a FUBAR situation

Ugh. I was a wreck.

What a great video. Very watched your channel for a while but this one was awesome great job

How can a multi-million dollar, military aircraft not have a basic ils system that a Cessna 172 has...???

Aren't we all adults here? It's ridiculous... "I can't say the cuss word"... you mean the words that all of the kids use all of the time? haaa haaa!

Controller should receive a SAVE award. His phraseology was good, and emergency assistance outstanding..

FA/18 can land in low vis utilizing instrument landing systems (ILS) and other navigation aids, it can also auto land on a moving carrier deck at sea. edit: Never heard of Vortac on the FA/18 :/ Climb to 10,000 feet - The FA/18 has a fuel page and it will give you an altitude + speed to obtain the maximum distance for the remaining fuel, also does this for a climb pretty neet. It may also be in the natops that 10,000 is the alt required for a glide for the distance remaining. btw climbing from A3 to A10 is nothing for that jet and will burn hardly nothing extra.

Sir, the way the controller said the coordinates was weird. Usually, it's just minutes and decimals, not minutes and seconds. He said 90 minutes, which doesn't make sense because seconds only go up to 60. I'm used to the maritime system, so I'm a bit lost.

That F18 pilot sounded calm to us...that was his version of freaking out.

You are incorrect entirely on the Tacan epallaute boy as far as built for a moving landing runway. Tacan receiver besides providing lateral bearing provides dme distance so you can figure out your descent profile even if you aren’t doing a dive and drive approach altitude crossings at specific dme waypoints on a land based approach plate. Something you may have never done which was even done in 747. Tacan has nothing to do with being built specifically for moving landing pads like aboat, other than it does allow for dme so you can vertically gage your descent onto a moving boat that’s moving forwards with you (but then transition to something else close in) but that feature of distance measuring is the same on the dme portion of an ILS or LOC with DME. Hey curious, do you wear your epallautes to the grocery store?

He can now go and change his underwear . Glad he's safe !

This was a heartwarming one. Love this community

For practical purposes, a TACAN does pretty much the same things a VOR/DME does. And a surveillance approach is a nonprecision approach like a TACAN or VOR approach with a similar MDA. Maybe you were thinking of a PAR which requires specialized radar equipment on the ground and is a precision approach with a DH like an ILS.

My idiot partner often arrive home with 2 miles of range left on the stupid Tesla. I don't understand how these people think.

As the fuel gauge goes empty the boxers fill up with the brown

Sounds like Tower was military . GREAT WORK.🇺🇸
P.S. Passengers note. I smelled the arcid aroma of
smoldering electric, crew was informed, we were
rewarded with a new aircraft.

Great analysis. I'm a former Army Black Hawk pilot and 25 yr airline pilot who retired off the 767.... so I get this from all angles. What I'd like to say, is to the controller;

Sir,
You are a credit to your profession. As I watched this video, I was sick to my stomach for this young pilot. You quick cool thinking, your knowledge and professionalism saved a lot of lives. You are the man.🇺🇲

1300 lbs for 15min? wow

What a fantastic job on this video. Kept me riveted throughout. I guess this is about as close as it gets. I hope that the pilot and that air traffic controller got together for a high five, a pat on the back, then dinner and a couple of drinks. Bless them both.

l think thats REALLY great that they worked together! l'll bet he might have been in bit of trouble from his boss for being in that situation though. :O Close one!

Many years ago I flew a PAR Approach (Precision Approach Radar, sort of similar to the Surveillance Approach) a few times, and it was NOT SIMPLE!!!! And that was in a Piper Cherokee, at about 70 MPH!! (certain airports used to allow this for practice)
I can't imagine, with super low fuel & visibility and all the associated stress, how difficult this must have been at fighter jet speeds!!!

Talk about “fly into the danger zone!”

bone chilling. dude probly went silent at the end for cya reasons. if i was in his shoes rules be damned im finding a way down lol

why not give our pilots basic world skills with flying

I'm not at all surprised the pilot wanted to climb that much. Glide slope without power on a plane designed to have ALL OF THE POWER is often pretty miserable. They're just kind of not designed to go slow and because the pilot can eject they're more likely to ditch if they can than to land short.

Kelsey, you had me crying on the end of this video. I am chilled. I'm also a Missourian, I'm proud of us.

Nerves of steel, both on the ground and in the plane. Excellent vid

Is surveillance approach similar to Ground Controlled Approach? GCA, they do those at NAS Kingsville TAW all the time.

As for climbing to 10k could it be that since he was past bingo fuel, he was thinking he might have to ditch, thinking 10k is a safe altitude to eject?

What do use for reenactment, flight sim?

uhmm fighter jets can land with low to next to zero visibility 🤔

No wonder Kelsey's channel is so successful,no matter how complex the info or details given,he is fantastic at breaking down and explaining all scenarios and terminology for all to understand,great channel👍

Ironic. F/A 18 Super Hornets were/are made across the runway from Lambert International.

Exfective CRM really should go beyond the cockpit.

Ideally, it should include all of the relevant components;
- Flight attendants
- ATC personnel
- airline associated flight and ground maintenance engineers
- airline logistical personnel
- security maintenance crews at relevant airports
- the passengers, because, often, they see and experience inflight mishaps and emergencies before any other relevant personnel, and thus can provide invaluable experience and data.


There are undoubtedly many more that can be added to this list. No one scenario can be added in isolation.

Incredible composure, due diligence, and teamwork. The only question I have is why the pilot let his aircraft get that low on fuel over a densely populated city?

I’d bet a weeks pay that ATC has a military background. Godbless our Rank and File

I’d bet a weeks pay that ATC has a military background. Godbless our Rank and File

sorry just curious, how would have this fighter ended up in this predicament?

Then there's the ARA, the Airborne Radar Approach, whereby the Navigator directs the pilot from a distant IAF (initial approach fix), say, 10,000 feet and 30 miles, down to 200 feet above TDZE (touchdown zone elevation) and just 1 mile from the runway threshold. USAF navigators used to practice ARAs multiple times per year, and I've twice done them under real-world conditions, once where we were low fuel and I had to build the ARA in-flight. Fortunately, they're pretty easy to build, provided you have an approach plate.

FYI, military radios aren't "completely different." We use VHF the same as civilian aviation, but we also use UHF. In addition, while military aircraft often have additional radio equipment,

Why he climbed: Least fuel per distance involves a climb to cooler altitudes, then an idle or no-fuel descent. Great guess! Yeah, he knows what he's doing.

Nice to see the controller come to speed.

By entering the airfield into the navigation system, the pilot can display direction, distance and even glideslope information which will help significantly with energy management.

Those things don't have much glide time!

I dont really understand the climb to 10k feet. Maybe because this isnt a high bypass engine, it burns disproportionately more fuel at cruise/idle, and he planned to get up to glide altitude, shut off one of the engines and idle the other until getting ready for the approach and then restart the engine in case of a bird strike/other issue with the engine that hadnt been shut down

I was stationed on a aircraft carrier, pilots would take off and recover in all weather conditions. I remember we were in a Med cruise when a snow squall hit, visibility was only 100 yards and these guys were landing like it was nothing. Fighter pilots are cool. Go Navy.