Shortly after takeoff from RAAF Base Amberley on 18 July 2006, the crew of an Australian F-111 heard something no F-111 crew in Australia had heard in thirty years. The control tower was on the radio: their left main wheel had just fallen off.

What followed was four hours of circling over southeast Queensland, a landing plan worked out in simulators on two continents, and one of the most-watched pieces of military aviation footage ever filmed in Australia: a swing-wing strike jet sliding down the runway on its belly in a shower of sparks, its hook snatching the arrester wire.

A Wheel Where It Should Not Be

The aircraft was A8-143, one of the F-111Cs Australia had taken delivery of in 1973 and later converted to RF-111C reconnaissance standard. On 18 July 2006 it was flying with No. 1 Squadron on what the ABC described as a routine flight. As the landing gear retracted after takeoff, the left main wheel separated and fell away. The Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd, told reporters it was something that had never happened in the 30-year flying history of the type in Australia.

The crew did not see it go. They heard it from the ground.

Four Hours of Circling

With one main wheel gone, landing on the remaining gear was a gamble: the bare leg could dig into the runway and send the jet out of control. The options were to eject over the sea, losing the aircraft, or to bring it down with all the gear up and let the airframe take the punishment.

The crew stayed airborne for about four hours, burning down fuel, while the plan was worked out on the ground. It was not, as the viral clips claim, a decision left to a few engineers. According to Warner, pilots and support staff in Australia and in the United States flew the problem in simulators to find the best approach.

The pilot, Flying Officer Peter Komar, was reported at the time to be in his late twenties and relatively new to the F-111. Warner, beside him in the side-by-side cockpit, was the more experienced of the two.

Sparks on the Runway

Just after 2 p.m. local time, Komar brought A8-143 in on a long, low approach with the gear up. The F-111 touched down on its underside and slid along the runway trailing sparks and smoke, and its tailhook caught the arresting cable stretched across the runway, which hauled it to a stop. Fire crews covered the aircraft in foam as soon as it halted. Both men were out within seconds.

Prime Minister John Howard praised the crew for landing “with no scratches, a few sparks and some sensational footage for the TV networks”. The RAAF grounded all 26 of its F-111s the same day while it checked the rest of the fleet, and flying resumed about a week later. Warner, interviewed by the ABC two days after the landing, was unshaken.

What Happened to A8-143

The damage to the underside was considered repairable, but with the F-111 fleet due to retire within a few years, the RAAF chose not to repair it. A8-143 never flew again. The last Australian F-111s flew on 3 December 2010, and in November 2011 A8-143 was among the airframes buried at the Swanbank landfill near Ipswich, a few kilometres from the runway where it had made its last landing. Its fin and rudder are reported to survive at Amberley.

What the Viral Clips Get Wrong

The footage resurfaces regularly on social media, usually with the same caption. The date, the place and the crew names are right. Three details are not. The crew were not both new to the jet: the pilot was relatively inexperienced, but the navigator was not. The landing plan was not simply the conclusion of “engineers on the ground”; it was developed by pilots and support staff in Australia and the United States in simulators. And belly landings of military jets are rarer than they used to be, but they are not “one of only a few” on modern fighters. What Defence itself claims is narrower and more impressive: Warner’s crew was one of only two ever to land an F-111 on its belly.

Sources: ABC News (19 and 20 July 2006); Associated Press via Fox News (18 July 2006); Defence News, “A place in history for skill and bravery” (3 September 2020); Ipswich First (30 September 2020); Aviation Safety Network record 137480; RAAF F-111 accident summary (F-111 veterans); FlightGlobal; Wikipedia, List of General Dynamics F-111 aircraft operated by the RAAF and General Dynamics F-111C (citing Wilson and Pittaway, 2010)