In the history of aviation, few incidents are as bizarre—or as ironic—as the time a Grumman F11F Tiger fighter jet shot itself down.
This real-life event occurred on September 21, 1956, and remains one of the most unusual and talked-about accidents in military aviation. Incredibly, a jet pilot caught up to and was struck by his own bullets during a test flight. Here's how this strange and almost unbelievable incident unfolded.
The Grumman F11F Tiger
The Grumman F11F Tiger was a sleek, high-performance jet fighter developed for the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. It was one of the first Navy jets capable of supersonic speeds in a dive and was briefly used by the famous Blue Angels flight demonstration team. Armed with four 20mm cannons, the Tiger was a fast and deadly aircraft—except, in this case, to itself.
The Test Flight
On that fateful day in 1956, test pilot Tom Attridge, a highly experienced aviator working for Grumman, was conducting a weapons test over Long Island, New York. His mission was to test the jet’s cannons at high speed. He climbed to around 20,000 feet and began a steep, high-speed dive, firing short bursts from his guns along the way.
Attridge fired two bursts—first a short one at 13,000 feet, then another at around 7,000 feet. He then increased throttle and descended rapidly, traveling at nearly supersonic speed.
The Impossible Happens
Moments after firing, the unthinkable occurred: the aircraft began to lose power, and the engine started failing. As Attridge struggled to control the plane, he noticed signs of serious damage. The jet's canopy shattered, the engine was failing, and the nosecone was heavily damaged. Attridge managed to crash-land the wounded aircraft in a wooded area—miraculously surviving with only minor injuries.
After recovering the wreckage, investigators were stunned to find bullet holes in the aircraft’s fuselage—holes that matched the 20mm rounds fired earlier in the flight. The shocking conclusion: Attridge had flown into his own gunfire.
How Could That Happen?
The explanation lies in physics and timing. The 20mm cannon shells, once fired, began to slow down due to air resistance—they travel in a ballistic arc. Meanwhile, Attridge’s jet, diving steeply and accelerating fast, was essentially chasing the same path as his bullets.
In just seconds, the aircraft caught up to the shells, which were still traveling forward but much slower. The bullets pierced the nose, shattered the canopy, damaged the engine, and nearly killed the pilot.