FJ-4 Fury Belly Landing at NAS Pensacola

[Steven Holzinger]

It's sort of old news at this point, but on Thursday November 13, 2008 at around 12:40 PM CST, an FJ-4 Fury was involved in a belly landing at NAS Pensacola during the practice show for the 2008 Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. The aircraft landed on Runway 25L and skidded to a stop just off of the runway, with the pilot exiting the aircraft safely and unhurt. Fire crews sprayed foam on the aircraft and reports state that some of the foam got into the cockpit, which isn't good news, but I heard another report that the aircraft did not have as much structural damage as originally thought and could be re-restored once again.

Here is my video of the incident. The plan was to have the Fury land on 25L while the Super Hornet did a high speed photo pass.

YnuKgAcOD2Q

[moose135]

Great catch on that video, Steve! What happened with the jet? Looks like he knew he had a gear problem and made a controlled gear-up landing. Glad the pilot got out, hope they get the plane flying again.

[cancidas]

wow that sucks. is that not the first belly landing for that airplane? with the engine shut down why not try to put it down in the dirt?

[Steven Holzinger]

I was hoping it was a landing gear problem but I was told that the pilot simply forgot to put the gear down. It did look like a controlled belly landing, and I think that was one of the saving graces for the pilot and plane.