Oct 17, 2012
A test pilot engineer in the U.S. Air Force has died in Pensacola Bay during open water survival training after parachuting, the first death since the training program began in 1994.
Maj. Garrett Wayne Knowlan, 32, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and executive officer for Brig. Gen. David Harris, 96th Test Wing commander at Eglin Air Force Base, was the married father of two children and had lived in Shalimar since 2010, according to an Eglin Air Force base spokeswoman.
The accident, which took place last Thursday, wasn’t made public until Wednesday morning. Air Force public relations officials provided only limited details of the mishap, which is still under investigation.
Knowlan was struck by a boat in Pensacola Bay, according to Maj. Carla Gleason, chief of operations for Air Education and Training Command public affairs at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio.
The four-day training course, which focuses on staying alive after parachuting into open water, is designed “for persons at high risk of isolation when they get shot down,” said 1st Lt. Nick Kim, a spokesman for the. Air Force Survival School, headquartered at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington state.
Knowlan, based at Eglin, was a veteran aviator whose experience included graduating from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He flew the CV-22 Osprey and HC/MC 130J.
