Images show a Boeing F-15QA on the ground after the crew members ejected.
A Boeing F-15 was involved in a ground ejection incident at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport around 07.30AM LT on May 18, 2021. According to the reports, both pilots successfully ejected: one of them refused treatment and the other was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, KMOV reported.
Footage broadcast by local news channel shows what looks like a pretty intact airframe (without the canopy, jettisoned for the ejection) on the grass next to the tarmac.
Pilots ejected from plane on runway at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport https://t.co/1ya80HD5p5 via @stltoday pic.twitter.com/T1xfMOwDI2
— Laurie Skrivan (@LaurieSkrivan) May 18, 2021
Although it has not been officially confirmed yet, the F-15 involved in the ground ejection incident is clearly an F-15QA, one of the most advanced Eagle variants, developed for Qatar: it sports the same camouflage we talked about last year, that is clearly inspired by the one applied to the Qatar Emiri Air Force’s Rafales that were first delivered in 2019.
Here are some details about the F-15QA from the article we published last year:
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As we previously wrote, Boeing was awarded a contract to manufacture 36 F-15QA fighter jets for the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF), the first of which will be delivered next year.
The F-15QA (Qatar Advanced), which has been defined the most advanced version of the Eagle, features some of the improvement that we will surely see also on the F-15X Advanced Eagle that is been acquired by the U.S. Air Force. Among those are new outer wing hardpoints for increased payload, AN/APG-82(V)1 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS) for both the pilot and the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO), 10×19-in Large Area Displays (LADs) and low-profile Head-Up Display (HUD) in both cockpits, digital fly-by-wire and General Electric F110-GE-129 engines.
A new feature that went almost unnoticed after the first flight is the presence of Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) sensors at the end of the tail booms and below the cockpit. Officially it’s not known which MAWS system and self-defense suite has been installed in the aircraft, however we can see from the photos that the sensor is very similar to the AN/AAR-57A(V) Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) produced by BAE Systems that could be most probably coupled with the AN/ALQ-239 Digital Electronics Warfare Systems (DEWS), also produced by the same company.
While they normally operate from the company’s plant at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Boeing has also facilities at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, to the southeast of St. Louis, where today’s F-15QA’s ground ejection occurred. It’s not clear whether the aircraft experienced the emergency during take off or after landing there. Anyway, we will update the story as new details become available.
