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Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted
Why were electronic warfare jets doing performance flying maneuvers?
You can plainly see neither jet was able to see each other.
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Originally Posted by masraum
I'm not a pilot so my opinion is worth what you guys are paying for it...
If it had been the Blue Angels, this wouldn't have happened. I suspect there's a pretty big difference between "a really great fighter pilot" and a "Blue Angels" pilot. I suspect the BA folks get a lot of very serious training that is specific to the type of stuff that happens at air shows.
Maybe. But then maybe having regular pilots perform air show stunts is a bigger risk than their usual flying duties. Maybe the management that put them in that position is the problem.
It was an air show. Happens all of the time.
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Originally Posted by greglepore
Whitby growlers. Not a great safety record there of late.
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Originally Posted by Dantilla
A few Blue Angels pilots rotate out every year.
The remaining pilots vote on which applicants (there are lots, of course) they want to replace them.
Pretty tight-knit group. Best of the best.
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Originally Posted by Cajundaddy
F-18 Growlers who probably don't have a lot of hours in tight formation. Looks like the aft plane lost sight of the leader momentarily and they sandwiched very quickly requiring everybody to punch out. Tragic!
This happened about 1 hour from my house and the wind was gusting 50 mph at the field. A hard day for all involved.
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Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
Looks like it was the EA-18G demo team out of Whidbey Island, so definitely not a professional show team like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels. They normally do some high speed formation passes, high speed climbs, typical formation flight stuff. Really hard to see how this happened, but obviously someone screwed up big time.
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Those of you who know of Ward "Mooch" Carroll on YT know he's a former F-14 aviator and instructor. This is about 30 minutes but IMHO well worth watching. He goes deep into which pilots are eligible for EA-18G flight show duties; specific authorized maneuvers in detail (showing actual documents); and a detailed, thoughtful video analysis. Addresses most/all of the speculation above.