Counterfeit.

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More bad American combat warplanes ejection seats!

"F-16 Pilot Died Because His Ejection Seat May Have Been Counterfeit"

From www.zerohedge.com BY TYLER DURDEN original story Rachel Cohen of DefenseNews | SEP 16, 2022.

"An Air Force investigation of a fatal fighter jet crash in 2020 quietly discovered that key components of the pilot’s ejection seat may have been counterfeit, Air Force Times has learned."

"First Lt. David Schmitz, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot at South Carolina’s Shaw Air Force Base, died June 30, 2020, when his ejection seat malfunctioned as he tried to escape from a failed nighttime landing. He was 32."

"The Air Force’s official inquiry in the months following the accident found that electronics inside the seat were scratched, unevenly sanded and showed otherwise shoddy craftsmanship."

Comments:

* Counterfeit as meaning perhaps active electronic component of lesser than MILSPEC level quality?

* Defective circuit boards normally returned to depot for repair. Replacing a defective component in a circuit board with a corrosion-resistant conformal coating rather difficult. Coating must be removed, part replaced, conformal coating once again applied.

* F-16 has been around for a long time. I assume a number of ejections from the warplane have already occurred. But until this time no real problems were found? Defective or "shoddy craftsmanship" a depot problem?

coolbert.