Thunderbird and Blue Angels crash on same day

That makes it even worse. Four aircraft and two pilots lost and another aircraft pretty badly bent.

 

I guess doing "loops to music" is more dangerous than we thought. Crazy week!

 

The one at Ramstein AB was the worst (August 1988). 3 dead pilots, 67 dead spectators, hundreds injured. I was stationed at 4th Allied Tactical AF in Heidelberg at the time and that one really rippled through everyone's thoughts.

 

I was there when it happened. Still have flashbacks about it. If I had not gone back up the hill to my fathers Squadron tent I would have been one of the spectators that were hurt or killed

 

Rob- That must have been an unnerving experience. The emergency response was not very organized, either, which probably led to a few more fatalities post-accident. Last one (helicopter pilot of chopper that was hit) did not die until September.

 

Taz - I am no expert on the emergency response but the biggest issue was the sea of people rushing up the hill from the runway area was also on the road leading up to the tower and the main fire station so that was perhaps the biggest issue in getting help down the hill. All my friends on base were in shock for close to a month afterwards we did not talk much hang outside to play Etc. In fact I dont recall going to the simulator building to get some stick time in the sims after that and on average I went there a couple times a week.

 

Rob- When the German ambulances showed up at the gate, the SPs would not let them on base for quite a while. Another group of badly burned patients were loaded on a bus and the bus driver got lost on the way to the hospital. Resulted in quite a few changes to disaster response checklists and procedures for responders.

 

Looks like the throttle lockout trigger was stuck and the pilot of Tbird 6 inadvertently shut down the engine instead of selecting flight idle.

https://theaviationist.com/2016/12/15/a-throttle-trigger-malfunction-and-inadvertent-throttle-rotation-resulted-in-the-f-16-thunderbird-accident/

 

If he slammed it back to idle I still don't see why it would have gone into cutoff. Meaning that on all the F-16's I ran, the throttle has to be rotated outboard to go to cutoff with that pinky lever depressed as it is spring loaded out.

So even with a trigger malfunction it wouldn't have went into cutoff on a routine throttle back during flight, it just isn't natural to rotate the wrist outboard while working the throttle while you're flying as far as muscle memory is concerned or procedure for that matter and the only time you ever do that is when you shut the engine down in the chocks. Once you pull that trigger to open the gate to cutoff, you have to swing that throttle left a good bit to get past it, like an inch or close to it.

Not trying to second guess anyone on the review board but that doesn't quite add up unless he panicked and that ain't likely for the discipline those fine aviators possess and exercise every time they taxi out...

 

Yes! Makes no sense...

Throttle needs to be rotated substantially (after the trigger is held back to allow the rotation) to come over the detent from IDLE to OFF.

 

I agree. Having to pull it back and rotate the wrist out seems like a lot of movement that I can't see would be accidental even without having to hold down on the pinky finger lever.

10 second mark motion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_GQXh8qRCk