Date:	Monday 13 July 1992
Time:	09:00 LT
Type:	McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle
Owner/operator:	60th FSqn /33rd FWg USAF
Registration:	85-0116
MSN:	972/C358
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Gulf of Mexico, 90 miles S of Eglin AFB, Florida -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Eglin AFB, near Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
13 July 1992 - F-15C-40-MC Eagle. 85-0116, c/n 0972/C358, of the 60th Fighter Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing, based at Eglin AFB, Florida, crashes at 0900 hrs. in the Gulf of Mexico, 90 miles S of Eglin. Capt. Darren S. Ruhnau, 27, of Niceville, Florida, assigned to the 60th Fighter Squadron, ejects safely.

He and another F-15 had departed Eglin at 0835 hrs. for a training mission. "I'm just glad the ACES II ejection system worked as advertised," Ruhnau said in a statement, "and that the search-and-rescue guys were there to do the job." "He was picked up by an oil freighter," said Capt. Susan Brown, a spokeswoman for the 33rd, but the helicopter crew "couldn't get him off there. So they transferred him to a Coast Guard cutter, but they couldn't get him off there either. He was in such good shape, they dropped him back in the water, and picked him up from there." A U.S. Navy helicopter of HC-16 from the USS Forrestal, which is based in Pensacola, plucked him from the Gulf at ~1000 hrs. and transported him to Eglin Regional Hospital where he was checked out and released at ~1330 hrs.

Ruhnau has been flying F-15s since May 1989 and assigned at Eglin since September of that year. In an unrelated incident, another 33rd Fighter Wing F-15 (86-0159) makes a rough landing, overshoots the runway at Eglin and comes to a stop in the grass. The pilot, assigned to the 59th Fighter Squadron, does not eject and is uninjured, the fighter sustains less than $10,000 damage, said Brown.

Wenzel, Tracy, "Eglin jet crashes; 2nd jet damaged", Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Tuesday 14 July 1992, Volume 47, Number 159, page 1A
www.scramble.nl (Scramble 263)
http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1985.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20171029221354/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/aircraft_by_type/f-15.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Apr-2012 16:26	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
09-Nov-2014 10:47	Oezil 007	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
26-Feb-2021 17:49	MuDr.Roup	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]