Thinderbird Down!! Accident Report

I would certainly call ensuring the crashing aircraft didn't kill any spectators "using good judgement." Keep in mind, he only had a split-second to make a decision; I think he did a great job thinking fast on his feet, as it were.

The old saying "walk a mile in another man's shoes" comes to mind

Give the pilot a break, I'm sure no one feels worse about the whole thing than him.

-I oringinally posted this on another forum-

It's very easy to have a knee jerk reaction to the incident and say toss the pilot out or imprison him and the guy who dropped the bombs on the Canadians. I'm not saying that these weren't two TOTALLY preventable accidents, one with a tragic ending, but think about this. Where would not just military aviation, but all aviation be today if they if they kicked out people like Chuck Yeager, Alan Sheppard, John Glenn, Bud Anderson, Jim Lovell, Chappy James or any other pilot most of us consider to be great just because they miscalculated or had an instant of bad judgement?. I feel confident that all of them made their fair share of mistakes and lost aircraft and were lucky enough to walk away from them. How would you feel if someone suggested our drivers liscense should be revoked because we wrecked our car driving too fast around a corner? After all it was preventable, we should have realized we were going to fast. Every human WILL make mistakes, luckily for most of us they usually don't involve destroying a multi-million dollar jet or attacking the wrong group of people on the ground

There is only one way to not make any mistakes, don't do anything! The pilot has to be one of the best or he would not be flying with the Thunderbirds. I would bet that no one is more critical of the mistake than he is. It is a high risk business with low pay and long hours. Stuff happens! rangerj

well I worked the Ole Lawn Darts for 8 yrs, and they have a hard life, they do more G's then any other plane daily and expect to keep on flying I haven't seen a F-15 do over 7G's in years compaired to the 16's 9G's just about every 20 minutes on each flight, so you can't knock the lil fighter that could, and for their problems it's mostly the engines that bring them down most of the 16's downings are from engine failures, lose the engine and your looking for the silk hiway to the ground, but she's one of the most relyable planes flying and the USAF has about 2500 of them in active, reserve & guard combined I think they could lose 1 or 2 once in a while and compair them to the Fleagles the cost for 1 of them equals about 2 - 3 Darts or 5 Hawgs and I know the Fleagles have major problems too when I was at Kirkuk we had 15's come in with A/C, electrical, Hyd problems just about once a week and heard nothing from the Darts except the pilot flew one out of fuel back in June so we cant really dog the Darts for mishaps and this one was the T-chicken type in front of thousands that lost it, and I've worked with the T-Chickens and the pilot might / or might not be flying with them next season, it depends on the Commanders decidision or he might just get a slap on the hand and has gotten back on the horse and doing it still, I feel we spent alot on that pilot to train him to be in the Chickens and he should stay with then to learn his mistake and have him understand the disgrace of botching a show

The interesting thing about this crash was that he pulled the aircraft out of the split s and would have recovered if he stayed with it. The problem is he had to make the choice with less then a second to spare. How fast does it take to count to one? The ground looks pretty big coming up at the speed he was traveling and he made a decision and acted. A lot of pilots who are no longer with us wish they acted as quickly. Machines can be replaced, people can't. The pilot is still with us to fly another day, a million Atta Boy's will never make up for the mistake but at least he still here to try. Good Job!

Hey, he reconized his error and took evasive manuevers to ensure safety to the civilian population and to himself. He followed the book. To train one pilot and keep him costs us 20 to 40 million dollars and ten years. As far as a dollar value, a much higher cost than losing the plane.

It is almost always "pilot error". The F-16 was the airframe with the most class A mishaps last year. Goes to wonder........

Wade

Tim,

Academy has the 1/35th UH-1C "Frog" kit #2196 with decals for two of our Sharks. Look in the Web site for "Rescue of Surfer Crew" under "1971". Surfer is one of the birds you can build with the decals. If you get the kit there are a few "goofs" with the rotor system. Get in touch then and I'll give you the fixes.

We lose F-16's (and other jets) all the time. Even though guys in my line of work usually refer to jet jocks as "ego drivers", and "little boys with big toys. We usually call them customers, but the bottom line no BS is that they're doing a mission that requires them to fly on the edge. Especially the demo teams. Pushing things and making for a spectacular show is what they're SUPPOSED to be doing. Did he make a mistake....yep....will he probably pay a price for it....more than likely....Does he deserve to be castigated and ridiculed by those who don't know the first thing about his job...ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! The USAF doesn't teach people to chuck jets, but they do teach the drivers that when you decide to depart the aircraft.....do it. This guy did a great job of turning a really bad day with respect to loss of life into a monetary loss for uncle sugar and in my humble opinion, he's to be commended for it.
I'm glad to hear so many of the members on this forum feel the same way. It reinforces my decision to join and participate.

dkmacin,
You might like to know that the fireball ended up a couple hundred feet from the base of the tower. Please explain to me how ANY aspect of this crash can be atributed to the NCO manning the tower.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Melgyver You cand do somehting right a million times over 30 or 40 years and you make one mistake and everyone is a "monday morning" quarterback screaming for your head! With all the technology today we forget people are "human" and make mistakes! I guess that's why they call them accidents.

Exactly! Too many idiots out there who open their mouths, haven't a clue as to what the hell they're talking about, and try to show how much they 'know'. Quite the opposite is usually the result; BUT life would be a bit more boring otherwise, I guess...


Fade to Black...

Well said Melgyver, I'm sure most of us really can't cast the first stone as they say. Checked your site, I am familiar with the 174th and the affiliation to the Flying Tigers, and would like to learn more about your squad.. I first read God is My Co-Pilot About over 30 yrs. ago! Now I wiil have to find a Huey model and add some teeth. Thanks for your Sevice to Our Country!

Tim Landers

You cand do somehting right a million times over 30 or 40 years and you make one mistake and everyone is a "monday morning" quarterback screaming for your head! With all the technology today we forget people are "human" and make mistakes! I guess that's why they call them accidents.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Dave Toews Did they take the price of the A/C out of his pay?

Probably not , but they will mine! he-he

LOL, I kinda doubt it!


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Did they take the price of the A/C out of his pay?

Watching the fella the only thing you can see for sure is that he went back and forth between the throttle and the zing-ring three times, finally punching out the third time. And yeah, with that visor down and the mask on you obviously couldn't see his face, but what a story it might have told!

As to the fate of Capt. Stricklin, that's been the subject of much debate. It's kinda funny to read some of the discussions on other forums; ignorance and idiocy galore! Some folks are screaming court-martial and all sortsa stupid crap. I don't think that he'll fly with the team again, but he's too valuable an assett to throw away for making a mistake like that. It happens to the best of 'em.


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Chopperfan, I have to agree with you. Yes he did well insuring spectator safety! Kudos!!

Was it just me or did anyone else notice that the pilot seemed to be calm and in control all the way until ejection? I mean it's kinda hard to tell with the visor but he sure seemed to be.
He did a great job of insuring a crash in a non-populated area.

Randie

Ya, the guy used the Nellis altimeter setting vice the local Idaho one. Word on the street is that he was off the team before they returned home. Not sure about the truth to that, but I bet he'll never forget to get ATIS again.

Go HERE to see in-cockpit video of this accident. Scroll down about a third of the way for the link.

There's also some links to discussions in the F-16.net forums as well as an extended version of the news item which oldhooker has kindly posted above. Also, there's a slightly larger version of the above image. What a photo! Damn!

Thanks to Eagle334 for bringing the existence of this clip to my attention! After that it was just a matter of hunting it down...


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That pic is awesome. glad he got out and no one was hurt. i was supposed to go to Ramstein with a buddy of mine but we didn't go cos he had cashflow problems, boy i am glad i didn't get there, that accident was horrific.
Greg

I wonder how the guy in the tower likes his posting to Eilson AFB Alaska?

Don

Sounds like the pilot did an excellent job avoiding a terrible disaster, too.
Well, other than tossing his pigeon into the dirt in the first place!

It's always terrible to hear about a T-Birds or Blue Angels accident, but at least this one had a "happy" ending.

thanks for the info oldhooker,
like djmodels99 said, just thankfully no-one was hurt.

Amazing pic! Thanksfully, no one got seriously hurt. Sad to see an aircract go down, but we do not need another Ramstein..