USAF Thunderbird down
"The pilot, reported by the Denver Post as Major Alex Turner, parachuted to safety. Obama, concerned, met with him afterwords:
All things considered, the Colorado incident could have been worse."
All things considered, the Colorado incident could have been worse."
Very sad about the loss of Captain Kuss, very glad Major Turner is relatively unscathed, but you have to be somewhat surprised at the POTUS allegedly thanking him for his service when the USAF has just lost an expensive aircraft.
Jack
Jack
It's not that surprising. A military member has survived a deadly incident, and can go home to his family, and provide a first hand account of what went wrong to lose a $30 million dollar jet. And he lives to fight another day. Stuff the jet!
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What did you expect POTUS to do? Berate Maj. Turner on the spot for the loss of the jet, despite having no idea what caused the loss?
-RP
I suspect that Rhino knows perfectly well what I meant, especially in view of my second post, although I'm sorry to see that his second sentence seems to suggest otherwise.
Jack
Jack
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End of the day he's stood there, probably a bit aching and in need of a beer.....
His worst to come is the banter and then the board, I'd say that's a damn good positive - he's still kicking.
RIP to Capt Kruss who wasn't as fortunate
His worst to come is the banter and then the board, I'd say that's a damn good positive - he's still kicking.
RIP to Capt Kruss who wasn't as fortunate
Who knows what the POTUS was saying, my guess is along the lines of
"Major, I am so glad you are OK, quite a ride I guess. I'll send the bill for the jet to you later" <wink><wink>
"Major, I am so glad you are OK, quite a ride I guess. I'll send the bill for the jet to you later" <wink><wink>
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He probably said, "With all the budget cuts I've done to the military, I'm sorry we couldn't give you a full tank of fuel. Then I arrived late and you had to circle and use up your reserve. But Major you almost made it, only a mile short of runway 35."
Unofficial report I just saw says 3LC nailed it. Airport is only a few miles from display site so they didn't take much fuel. Obama speech went long. The pilot called joker so they didn't use burners for the final fly by. Due to a runway change they had to land north instead of south as planned. He ran out of fuel on downwind. No fuel means no fire.
Unable to say "No!"....the USAF writes off a Jet!
The current POTUS is well known for having no consideration of others when it comes to Schedules and Appointment Times.
The Birds should have packed it in and gone Home when they hit their planned RTB Fuel State....and made apologies to the POTUS as necessary.
What would he have done...cut the Air Force Budget some more?
The current POTUS is well known for having no consideration of others when it comes to Schedules and Appointment Times.
The Birds should have packed it in and gone Home when they hit their planned RTB Fuel State....and made apologies to the POTUS as necessary.
What would he have done...cut the Air Force Budget some more?
Wow, if fuel starvation turns out to be the case due to the speech running long that will be an interesting write up on the contributing factors.....human factors, supervision, implied pressure, etc. Imagine 5 and 6 burn more fuel....
How about anticipating that a speech might run long or the winds might shift and adding a little more fuel? I think someone may be looking for a new job soonl
I remember reading a report about a USAF pilot who was practising short field techniques on a strip out in the desert. He was flying an OV-10. After a few successful landings, he realised on the fateful take-off that the brakes were binding and he wasn't going to get airborne nor was there sufficient strip left to stop in so he ejected. This was entirely successful and after undoing all of his straps on landing, he realised that the aircraft was sitting in the desert not far away with the engines still running. Its further progress had been arrested by a large boulder which was now wedged against the nose leg. So, he wandered over, got back in the cockpit and went through the shut down checks! They both survived to fight another day.
Last edited by JW411; 11th Jun 2016 at 11:36.