Salute!
A lot more criteria for being “accepted” to be a “Bird” or “Blue”, Okie. It ain’t all flying hours, or even hours in type. Even the Dayton accident was more a matter of judgement than hours.
A lot depends upon how well you get along with the team and your off-duty stuff like family, stooped things at the stag bar ( oops, can not have those anymore), OER’s and more.
I taught and flew with a bunch in three different planes, and the flying was not the big deal.
I say that something besides pilot error is possible, as the slot dude does not have an easy escape route if things go bad. The four ship crash at Creech was doing the line abreast loop, so the guys were looking left/right and not so much forward. I was at the Blues show when the boss got lower than planned and then resigned a day later. The form broke well, but the slot guy had just enuf margin.
Another nickel on the grass.
Gums sends...