Blue Angels Crash

TacticalNuke

TacticalNuke

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Report of a single-aircraft crash of the Blue Angels Demonstration Team:

A jet fighter flown by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels demonstration team crashed Saturday during an airshow in South Carolina and a number of houses were on fire, according to media reports.Witness Scott Houston told CNN in a telephone interview that he saw six Blue Angels jets flying low behind a grove of trees at the end of an airshow in Beaufort, S.C., and only five emerged.
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Still no word on what happened, appears some conflicting reports from witnesses. A sad day for naval aviation for sure.

My first inclination is if there was mechanical problems or if the pilot suffered from G-induced loss of conciousness(GLOC). The Blue's do not wear G-suits and this may be a possibility depending on what they were doing at the time.

My prayers to the pilot and his family and the rest of the blue angel team
 
Blue Angels name replacement pilot

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/05/ap_blueangelspilot_070511/

A former Navy Blue Angels pilot has returned to fill the slot held by a pilot killed at a South Carolina air show, team officials said Thursday.

Lt. Cmdr. Craig Olson, 37, of Kirkland, Wash., will practice with the team for several weeks before joining at air show performances, said Cmdr. Kevin Mannix, the team’s squadron commander. Olson flew with the Blue Angels from 2003 to 2005....
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Blue Angels coming to Annapolis

Published in the Annapolis Capital:

http://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/05_13-72/NAV

After being grounded following a fatal crash last month, the Blue Angels have confirmed that they'll perform during the Naval Academy's Commissioning Week later this month.

The Blue Angels continued practicing but stopped making public appearances immediately after the April 21 crash that killed a pilot....
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It is good to see that the Blue's are back in the air. As their CO mentions sometimes the best way to deal with things is to get back in the saddle.

As an aside, the CO is a graduate of SUNY Maritime, the across the Long Island Sound rival of Kings Point.
 
Crash Investigation of a Mock Dogfight & other videos.

This is an investigation of an old crash during a practice dogfight. Exclusive, as far as I know this is the first time this video has been readily available to the general public.


Crash Investigation of a Mock Dogfight Mishap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JY-BItf1kQ

I think this crash was a result of GLOC. If you look at the primitive old fashion computer graphics of the simulation of the crash, you will see that there are three Starburst in the path of the aircraft. I think the Starbursts are bookmarks that represent stick/control inputs, I think the first Starburst is when the pilot started a tight turn and started to pull G’s. I think the second Starburst is when there was no more stick/control inputs, so it's likely when the pilot lost consciousness. The third Starburst I think represents when the pilot started to regain conscious and apply stick/control inputs. Though apparently the pilot started to regain consciousness before the crash, he evidently wasn't conscious enough to properly controlled aircraft.

After a person GLOC’s the pilot stops flying the aircraft, so the aircraft has a tendency to go into a 1G roll, sometimes a spin.

So what happens in a tight turn, is the pilot will put in inputs that make the plane turn and pull Gs, if a pilot loses consciousness the controls usually go neutral, which usually allows the aircraft ease off on the G, however since the aircraft is not controlled, fighters have a tendency to roll and dive if they are not controlled.

The computers simulation in the video was made from data gathered from data recorders, and possibly air and ground tracking.

On April 21 2007 one of the Blue Angels crashed (Kevin 'Kojak' Davis). I don't mean to interfere with the investigation, I have respect and reasonable faith in the investigation. With all due respect, I would like to speculate, that the loss was possibly due to GLOC.

By no means am I am positive that that is what happened with the Blue Angels, however I can't help but notice some glaring similarities. There are some things that could look very similar though. I'm sure that the investigators are aware and educated. They also have the advantage of having the data to study.

I suspect the Blue Angels have seen this video, I think it is (or was) in the curriculum for all fighter pilots in the US military, as part of safety awareness training.

GLOC = Gravity induced Loss of Consciousness

GLOC Gravity induced Loss Of Consciousness Part 1 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvLM_uzNJZU

GLOC Gravity induced Loss Of Consciousness Part 2 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQgvPBlz6M0

GLOC in flight. (2 examples) Warning: Explicit Language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufdIBObpl5w

GLOC Centrifuge Training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7mrKMn47tc


I think it is against military protocol to publicly speculate on mishaps that are under investigation. I am not a member of the military, I understand the rules are to try to keep from influencing the investigation, however I think that speculation sometimes is good for safety awareness and consciousness. Moderators I will not feel offended if you if you edit or delete my post.
 
Your speculations are just that. Why don't we just wait and hear the results of the mishap board. I truly doubt that anything we say here could possibly influence the investigation.
 
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