Another Avoidable Air Force tragedy

After reading this, the part that bothers me the most is NOT the low-level maneuvers, but the apparent lack of familiarity of the pilot with (1) the capabilities of the aircraft he is flying and (2) the lack of familiarity with the emergency procedures (committing them to memory) because, at that level, you don’t have time to look them up if anything goes south.
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In 1970, I watched a C-130 on Okinawa do approach and landing maneuvers that were more hair-raising than what that C-17 was preparing to do. BUT… after watching for a few minutes, it became apparent that the pilot knew that plane like the back of his hand. He was approaching from a steep 90 degree angle and banking at less than 200 ft to land and stop in about 300 ft. And he did it OVER and OVER. Knowing our re-supply missions in SEA involved flying into some very remote strips in the jungle, it didn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what he was getting ready to do.
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I watched pilots spend hours sitting in the cockpit with their eyes closed, memorizing the location of emergency switches so that they could do what they needed without thought or looking.
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Just a thought, but are we seeing a SLIGHT lapse in personal discipline here, with tragic consequences for those involved?

I agree that there is a lapse. With the amount of time these pilots have to spend on deployments, I’m not surprised.
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When you go from a garrison/training mentality, where safety procedures and regulations are enforced with threats of UCMJ action, to a combat mentality where those procedures and regulations get thrown out the window, it’s difficult going back to the old thought process.

Awesome video.

100% agree, although I would add that he would not have crashed with altitude. He should have been practicing this with altitude until the procedures were engraved into his memory.
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This reminds me of the Buffalo NY crash last winter where the pilot encountered a stall and raised the nose to counteract. As a glider pilot it’s been pounded into the core of my soul to drop the nose and gain speed to counteract a stall.
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Proper training and a pilot’s understanding of its importance saves lives. The miracle on the Hudson proves this, Chesley Sullenberger had been preparing and extensively training for emergencies his whole career.
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I find the Investigators’ claims that the causes were due to “hot-dogging” shallow. The pilot was training for an airshow, “hot-dogging” is what he is supposed to be doing. That’s like saying the cause of the crash is “flying”. This smells slightly like a cover up for inadequate training.
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Condolences to the family.

Totally small world creepy: the pilot of the C-17 in Alaska was the son-in-law of the pilot of Ted Steven’s plane:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/us/12pilot.html?_r=2

My point would be that you practice with an extra layer of safety until you have the maneuver down pat. When you KNOW what the plane can and can’t do. THEN you take it to a lower level.
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The T-birds used a lot of Vietnam combat pilots who, by the time the joined the team, were used to flying at night, in very close formation, without lights. They could do close formation flight in their sleep. During a show, I was struck by how close they flew in the F-4s.
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After they lost the entire team at Nellis when the lead plane crashed with mechanical failure, they added extra spacing and the shows aren’t nearly the heart-stoppers they used to be.
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Those transport pilots should be able to do the type of low level flying he was practicing. However, you aren’t driving a sports car there – and you better know how that whale handles at low airspeeds and PRECISELY how much room you need to recover if something goes wrong. Doing what he was going to do takes practice – training will only take you so far and there’s only so much you can “simulate”.

I normally steer clear but I feel compelled to respond to the uninformed monday-morning quarterbacking so far.

What happened was a tragedy, simply put. As with any mishap, there were probably mistakes made. How often have you gone to work and driven perfectly? Perhaps not paid attention every second like you should? Maybe missed a turn distracted by life around you? Don’t forget that people fly planes and no matter how well trained, bad things sometimes happen despite our best efforts.

Do not pretend to be an expert and pass judgment on those involved, they should be honored for their service.

My condolences to the families of SITKA 43

No one is dishonering them. But we are trying to understand what happened and giving our opionions. I’m sorry if you think this is a dishonor.
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Do yourself a favor, go to an aviation forum (any type) and find a thread about an accident. Everyone there will give their condolences to the family and the pilot and then extensively pick the situation apart trying to find out what exactly went wrong. It’s because they want to know what mistake occured so they don’t do the same.
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It’s a bigger shame not to study the incident and learn from experience.
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Also, read about Chesley Sullenberger and what he has done to prepare for incidents. Everything from studying accident reports to physically walking up to a downed crop duster and staring at the dead pilot in order to enforce in his head that this isn’t a game and that he better be prepared. Was that the right thing to do? I’m sure the passengers of flight # 1549 aren’t questioning his techniques.
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Passing judgement is easy because the aircraft commander flew the jet outside of its limits. Bad.

One would have thought that the B-52 mishap at Fairchild in ’94 would have been an object lesson on poor airmanship.