Bleipriester
Freedom!
Known is that many F-104 were lost by accidents. For example, Germany lost 270 of its over 900 (over 35 % of all 2578 F-104) Starfighters.
The speculations about the why and how are still ongoing. Bad weather, human failure, etc. But the most important reason in my opinion was the abuse of the F-104 for tasks it was not designed to perform. To make a multirole Blitzbomber out of the interceptor, first of all the Germans equipped the fighters with a lot of stuff that increased its weight and massively limited its flight characteristics what caused a heavy loss of pilots and fighters.
The interesting story of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in Germany:
Starfighter with Luftwaffe
The speculations about the why and how are still ongoing. Bad weather, human failure, etc. But the most important reason in my opinion was the abuse of the F-104 for tasks it was not designed to perform. To make a multirole Blitzbomber out of the interceptor, first of all the Germans equipped the fighters with a lot of stuff that increased its weight and massively limited its flight characteristics what caused a heavy loss of pilots and fighters.
The interesting story of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in Germany:
Starfighter with Luftwaffe