Air Force Thunderbird crashes after flyover of Air Force Academy Graduation

[Sir Galahad]

And Obama was giving the speech, if that is not irony I don't know what is.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/02/thunderbird-crash-colorado-springs/

 

[UCFRogerz]

Looks like he put it down gently. Pretty rare to have a fully intact plane after a plane crash. Where's our resident pilot? @NinjaKnight

 

[NinjaKnight]

Looks like he put it down gently. Pretty rare to have a fully intact plane after a plane crash. Where's our resident pilot? @NinjaKnight

That is nuts, I'll be interested to see the accident report, it appears he ejected so you are right very strange to have it in such relatively good condition, but not good enough to have ejected on the ground (F-16 has the ACES II seat which is 0/0 capable, so if you pull the handle on the ground at 0 air speed it will safely eject. But you can't have any sort of structural failure or else you risk the canopy not separating properly and then you pull a Goose.)

Glad he's OK though.

If I had to hazard a way too early guess it could have been an engine failure, since the viper only has 1 and has the glide ratio of a pregnant brick if you lose propulsion he probably would have tried to glide it down to an area for a controlled crash but then punched out when he couldn't make it to a road or something else.

 

[jetsaholic]

The real question is, which restroom did he use afterwards.*

 

[jetsaholic]

And a Blue Angel crashed in Tennessee.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/06/02/navy-blue-angel-jet-crashes-smyrna/85308972/

#banplanes

 

[UCFRogerz]

That is nuts, I'll be interested to see the accident report, it appears he ejected so you are right very strange to have it in such relatively good condition, but not good enough to have ejected on the ground (F-16 has the ACES II seat which is 0/0 capable, so if you pull the handle on the ground at 0 air speed it will safely eject. But you can't have any sort of structural failure or else you risk the canopy not separating properly and then you pull a Goose.)

Glad he's OK though.

If I had to hazard a way too early guess it could have been an engine failure, since the viper only has 1 and has the glide ratio of a pregnant brick if you lose propulsion he probably would have tried to glide it down to an area for a controlled crash but then punched out when he couldn't make it to a road or something else.

Yeah I was thinking something along the same lines. Engine out, glide to a good spot and get out late.