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Old 1st Jun 2011, 20:28
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DelaneyT
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: California U.S.
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And you have some form of documentation for this conspiracy theory? Just a link to some official USAF material would be nice... or anything credible. ( --GreenKnight121)

The final/formal 'Diamond Crash' investigation was widely questioned at the time, but there are no obvious Google links to the formal details now. Apparently, Aviation Week did publish the full USAF mishap report (publicly releasable sections)-- it's probably still in their online archives, but behind a pay wall.

An informal link here gives a flavor of the controversy:

Thunderbird crash (Ed Rasimus)

excerpt:

"The accident report was very controversial. As the only TAC unit other than the 'Birds flying the T-38, the 479th TFW at Holloman was tasked to supply both the Flying Safety Officer member and Pilot member to the accident investigation board. Both pilots were out of my unit, the 435th TFTS.

The initial report of the board was a finding of pilot error. The lead aircraft had topped out on the loop at an altitude below the minimum required to insure a safe recovery. Failure to recognize the altitude and continuation of the maneuver to the pull through meant that after reaching about 60 degrees nose low inverted, the formation was in a position from which recovery was no longer possible.

There was evidence reported that the control stick and linkages were deformed probably due to pilot effort to pull through at whatever G was available..."
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