Fallen Angel

[nuch_ss396]

WOW!

Years ago at Willow Grove NAS I saw Blue Angel #6 come in
from a flight performance hurredly and taxi all the way to
the end of the runway and emergency crews went after it.

That's the closest I ever got to a bad situation and I'm
glad it ended simply that way. So very sorry to hear that
this pilot lost his life doing something for the good of
the public.

God Speed!

[Motion Camaro]

<font color="blue"> Prayers will be said ... and heard </font>

[Belair62]

Some folks suggest possible bird strike.

[budnate]

bummer, I hope they dont pull the plug on the shows, all great guys! cant imagine pilot error, something else happened.

[PeteLeathersac]

So sorry to hear this terrible news...our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends..

~ Pete

[1970Ls6]

[Mr70]

I thought there is an unspoken code when a pilot is going down in a residential area that he can not avoid.
He will sacrifice his own life before others and not eject from the cockpit.
They stay on the stick and aim for a clearing or less congested area as much as possible in those
residential areas,to keep civilian loss at a very minimum.

[Musclecarkid]

My guess is the pilot blacked out from extreme G-Force. Video shows he made a real sharp 180 turn at high rate of speed just before he drifted off course. He was not in control when he crashed. These guys don't go down in residential areas, they steer away.

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
These guys don't go down in residential areas, they steer away.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was trained by the USAF to SURVIVE a crash or ejection. No doubt the Blue Angels are too. One of my USAF flight school instructors set me up to eject during a post-flight debrief examination. (Oral examination/discussion.) My jet struck birds just after takeoff, flamed-out both engines, and I had to talk through the ejection procedure. As I reached for the ejection handles the instructor said that my plane was aimed right at the baseball field on base and that there were kids playing baseball, all looking up at my falling jet. I said that I would delay my ejection and steer away from the kids. Man, my instructor unloaded on me! "That's the number one factor in aircrew fatalities: the delayed decision to eject!" The lesson was: EJECT. I even expressed sympathy for dropping a disabled jet onto a ball field full of kids but my instructor's reply was blunt: "They'd do it to you." It hammered home what military pilots are taught to do first: save yourself. You can't go on fighting the war if you're dead.

If that Blue Angel fully blacked-out (G-induced Loss Of Conciousness, or G-LOC) then he had no idea what was going on when he went in--he was out-cold. A pilot can pull hard enough (pull Gs) to lose control of his arms and legs and still be fully aware of what's happeneing during a near-G-LOC event (been there, done that) and that is truly terrifying. You're wide-awake but you can't see or move a muscle or even twitch your finger while the jet flies on merrily through the sky until you regain muscle control and vision.

The human survival instinct is far too strong to cause a pilot facing death to "steer away" from the orphanage. It sounds cold and cruel but I was taught to eject and drop the jet onto the kids' baseball game. The only time a pilot steers away from the kids is when he can do so and still eject safely. The delayed decision to eject kills more military pilots than anything else. "Steering away" was probably made up by military Media/Public Relations officers to make heroes out of pilots who died in airplane crashes near kids' baseball games.

[P.J.]

My prayers go out to the family of this brave dedicated
Pilot. I had the privilage a while back of being invited onto the ss Kennedy for the day for manuvers off the coast for the day.
The invitaion was from the captain of the fly boys on that carrier.
I must admit that I was never in my life more impressed by the patriotic passion and professionalism of the men and women of that ship. May god bless them all.
PJ