https://aviationweek.com/defense-spa...tal-t-38-crash
Botched Formation Approach Caused Fatal T-38 Crash, Investigation Shows
A botched formation approach caused two T-38s to crash upon landing in November 2021 at Laughlin AFB, Texas, shortly after the U.S. Air Force had banned formation landings of the aircraft because of another fatal crash.
An Air Force Accident Investigation Board report into the crash says the pilots’ failure to communicate during the maneuver prompted the T-38s to try to land simultaneously while not maintaining visibility of each other. The crash was the third major incident involving the T-38 in 2021 and the eighth since 2018, according to service data.
According to the report’s narrative, the two T-38s took off at about 10 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2021, for a local formation flight with one student pilot and two instructor pilots. The plan called for the student pilot’s aircraft to lead a low approach to Laughlin with one aircraft to land, depending on fuel levels.
During the final approach, the T-38 with an instructor at the controls “called off” the other, but both attempted to land. The instructor’s T-38 ended up below the other aircraft on final approach in a position where neither could see the other and touched down first. The T-38 flown by the student pilot landed on top of the first, with its landing gear crashing into the first aircraft’s rear stabilizer. Both aircraft became uncontrollable and were destroyed.
The pilot in the first aircraft was able to escape. The student pilot and instructor in his back seat attempted to eject, but the sequence was “interrupted” because the aircraft was inverted, the report says. The student pilot was killed and the instructor sustained multiple life-threatening injuries.
Investigators said the crash was caused by the instructor in the student pilot’s aircraft failing to communicate, and the instructor in the first aircraft failing to verify which aircraft would land. The backseat instructor did not recognize a dangerous situation and failed to intervene to prevent the aircraft from crashing into the other.
The crash came after a significant change to the T-38 syllabus. In May 2020, Air Education and Training Command stopped the use of formation landings for T-38s after a November 2019 crash that killed an instructor and a student pilot.
An investigation into that incident found that shortly before the flight, the squadron’s director of operations was urging the elimination of formation landings because the service’s combat air forces no longer practice them and they are dangerous.
Formation approaches are a syllabus requirement for T-37 training, outlining four ways they can be accomplished: with both aircraft performing a low approach, a “split to land” on different runways, a visual meteorological condition drag with one aircraft 3,000 ft. behind the lead, and one aircraft landing and the other performing a low approach.
The November 2021 crash happened during the last method, and the report says there is no defined guidance or standards at Laughlin or in Pilot Instructor Training outlining how it is done. Because of this lack of standards, the two instructors in the jets used conflicting techniques and neither were clear who would land first.