Originally Posted by
sandiego89
Tick tock, it is now October and not even a preliminary yet? Hmm. Often at this point it would suggest disagreement between the investigators and approvers up the chain- sometimes political, sometimes not enough or contradictory information, sometimes very complicated issues. But if it were an engine issue you would think there would be some sort of hint that they were investigating a complex mechanical issue...
I visited a friend a few weeks ago who lives in the Colorado Springs area. He commanded one of the early F-16 squadrons at MacDill AFB and is a Zoomie (see:
Glossary | Air Force Academy).
The word in the COS local area was that the Thunderbirds held quite a while longer than expected due to the late arrival of Air Force One. My friend thought a low fuel state was the culprit in the pilotless landing with no fire.
Similar to your analysis, he was guessing that the technical cause of the crash was known almost immediately and that the politics and blame game were what were taking so long.
He recalled a flight display timing snafu three decades ago when he was supposed to lead a four ship F-16 Super Bowl flyover.
Now, this is no s**t.
He had practiced the maneuver with his wingmen and knew exactly when to start the turn inbound to make a pass for the TV cameras at the start of the National Anthem. Nobody took a knee in those days.
There were technical problems with the stadium sound system and the plan was to run a couple of commercials and an interview while sorting things out. The F-16's were told hang to hang loose and they would get a three-minute warning before the music started. Somehow the
Star-Spangled Banner suddenly began and nobody told the Air Force.
My friend was in a turn out low over the water and missed the first couple of frantic radio calls to turn inbound. By the time he got the word, the song was half over. Seeing his military career passing before his eyes, he pushed up the power while trying to leave a little throttle for his wingmen to play catchup.
Just as the last notes of the National Anthem were played, the TV camera found the inbound Viper attack. They were still accelerating at a high power setting as they roared over the crowd and then did a pullup to slow the planes before they busted the Mach. It wasn't exactly the gentle banked formation flyby that had been approved by the feds. But the crowd went wild and the General called from Colorado Springs to congratulate Jitney on his spectacular performance.
My friend was also standing in cadet formation at the Academy in 1968 when the F-105's (at least one anyway) famously went supersonic and broke hundreds of windows.