Aircraft pics

[Xplantdad]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, he did get punished but the Navy is much more tolerant about such things than the USAF is. Pull that kind of stunt in the Air Force and you're out the door.

Bart, you are out of control with all these great pics! Great stuff! I might have to dig through my archives and post a few.

Oh, and I sent the Thunderbird mishap video to Bruce for him to post. Stay tuned.

x 100

[/ QUOTE ]


Here it is anyways...LOL

[ANDY M]

I believe this was not the first mishap like this. Didn't the T-Birds lose all 4 guys in a diamond formation back roll when they all followed the leader into the ground, killing all involved?
I think that this was during a practice session, and the Air Force suspended the program for a few years until they sorted it all out.

[427TJ]

Correct Andy. The Thunderbird four-ship main formation flew their T-38 Talons into the ground during a practice in January of 1982, killing all four pilots. The skinny on that one was that the formation leader initiated the loop with insufficient altitude to pull out at the bottom and they all went in. The USAF concocted a story about a system malfuncion in the leader's T-38 but it has been soundly refuted, unofficially. The reason the other three followed their leader into the ground is because they keep their eyes glued on lead's airplane and they're used to ground rush so they dutifully followed him in. The leader didn't make a warning radio call to his formation probably because he had both hands on the stick and was pulling with all his might to avoid ground impact. The other three probably felt the G-load build up over what they were used to (as lead pulled for his life) and probably saw the impact coming at the last second but it was too late.

[47Hammer]

Another punch out!

[Eddie M.]

[ QUOTE ]
Correct Andy. The Thunderbird four-ship main formation flew their T-38 Talons into the ground during a practice in January of 1982, killing all four pilots. The skinny on that one was that the formation leader initiated the loop with insufficient altitude to pull out at the bottom and they all went in. The USAF concocted a story about a system malfuncion in the leader's T-38 but it has been soundly refuted, unofficially. The reason the other three followed their leader into the ground is because they keep their eyes glued on lead's airplane and they're used to ground rush so they dutifully followed him in. The leader didn't make a warning radio call to his formation probably because he had both hands on the stick and was pulling with all his might to avoid ground impact. The other three probably felt the G-load build up over what they were used to (as lead pulled for his life) and probably saw the impact coming at the last second but it was too late.

[/ QUOTE ]

did something like this happen to the blue angles to?

[Xplantdad]

I found this...

[ QUOTE ]
In their entire history, 23 pilots from the group have been killed in air show or training accidents with the most recent incident taking place in 1999 when a Hornet crashed in Georgia killing two pilots. [2]

[/ QUOTE ]

[Eddie M.]

Thanks Bruce seems like its been a few years ago I heard the blue angles did the same thing maybe it was the thunderbirds that I heard about

[47Hammer]

More great shots...