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Watch: Miraculous Escape For Unconscious Fighter Pilot
Newly-declassified video footage has revealed the dramatic moment when an unconscious fighter pilot is saved from certain death.
The head-up display of a US Air Force Arizona Air National Guard F-16 records a tight manoeuvre, putting the international student pilot through more than eight G, before he starts to lose consciousness.
Travelling at supersonic speed, the aircraft plummets towards the ground before - at just 2,000ft - the aircraft’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) kicks in and takes control.
It's reportedly the fourth confirmed 'save' of this kind with a US Air Force F-16, since the system was introduced in 2014.
Three decades in development, the system is expected to prevent 90% of controlled aircraft terrain impacts.
It's designed to automatically execute a ground-avoidance move if it detects an impending collision.
Over 4,500 F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft have been built since 1976, seeing service with the military forces of 25 countries.
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