F-16 Fighting Falcon FA-96 c/n 6H-96 (1985 - 2002)

Guy Golsteyn
Now how is this for a weird story? People who know me in person know that I am in the Belgian army. I was stationed in Leopoldsburg from 1996 until 2003; my job in those days included all the safety and environment issues related to the armed forces of the neighborhood.
In january 2002 there was a F-16 that didn't make it to the base of Kleine Brogel, so the pilot had to eject above the small town of Wijchmaal. Since this was a environmental risk, I gathered my team and we drove to the crash site, about 15 km outside Leopoldsburg. We arrived there before everyone else and we had to secure the wreck for a while before the air force arrived on the site. They were responsible for the removal of the wreck, I was responsible for the remediation of the contaminated soil. During our work we had to scare away a lot of television crews; I remember a local tv-icon ('Sergio' for the people who know him) who tried to make a tv-show about the crash, but we had to keep him out of there. Anyway, after a few days the air force finished cleaning up the wreck, declaring the site 'free for remediation works'. They took away most of the F-16 crashed parts and told me that I could do whatever I liked with eventual small leftovers.
So while we were doing our remediation job, I found a part of the crashed F-16 large enough to keep it in my possession; I put it in my model planes showcase.
That was 10 years ago. Today I received the 1/72 Tamiya F-16 that I ordered with Ebay. I opened the box and took a look at the instructions. There are decals inside to build a Belgian F-16, and the registration number of that airplane is FA-96. So I went on the internet and looked up a little background information of this particular airplane. This is what I found out:

05/03/85: Taken on charge by the Belgian Air Force
00/00/94: marked with 'D-Day Invasion Stripes' to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy (last noted 21/03/95)
000000-000598: upgrade to F16AM (Midlife Update)
08/01/02: Cat.5 After engineproblems the aircraft crashed at Wijchmaal-Peer. The aircraft returned from a deployment to the ACMI-range at Waddington when it
experienced problems over Leopoldsburg. The pilot tried to reach to Kleine Brogel, but when the pilot noticed that he could not make, he was guided by 2 other F16's to a remote area near Kleine Brogel and the pilot ejected safely. Cdt.vl.Paul Gielis (10 W Tac - 349 Squadron)

So I thought: 08 january 2002 crashed in Wijchmaal???? That is the plane that I helped to clean up! And what's more: I still have a part of the real airplane in my showcase!!
How's that for a coincidance?? If I ever needed motivation to build an airplane, this surely is a great one!

Tim Vereecke
woow, excellent story! you definitely need to build that one!

Guy Golsteyn
Or... I build both F-16's; the one before the upgrade as it is in the tamiya kit + the one after the upgrade from Revell and Daco decals, since that was the plane I 'cleaned up'...

Guy Golsteyn
I uploaded a picture of F-16AM FA-96 taken at Kleine Brogel on 18 June 2001, just a few months before the crash. The upgrade is clearly visible. So I think i'm gonna build F-16AM FA-96 twice, with the real part in the middle...

Guy Golsteyn
Guido, do you mean this kit:
F-16 Mlu "Tigermeet 09" (Revell 04691, 1:72)
or this kit:
Lockheed F-16 MLu (Revell 04612, 1:72)
Or maybe it doesn't matter since they are the same F-16's?

Holger Kranich
To be personally related is indeed the best motivation to build a model! Very nice first hand account, thx for posting!