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HH6/Resident Beerwench
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Blue Angels Pilot Ejects Before Plane Crashes Thursday, December 02, 2004
PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Blue Angels (search) pilot safely ejected before his jet crashed into the Gulf of Mexico during a training flight Wednesday, a spokesman for the Navy precision flying team said.
The F/A-18 Hornet (search) went down about a mile off Perdido Key, a barrier island on the Florida-Alabama border, and 10 miles from Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the Blue Angels are headquartered. A rescue team pulled the pilot from the 62-degree water about 10 minutes after the crash. His identity was being withheld pending notification of his family, Blue Angels spokesman Lt. Garrett Kasper said. He was released from the hospital after several hours of observation. The cause of the crash was under investigation. "We know he had experienced some mechanical difficulties with the aircraft that made it unable for him to return to Pensacola Naval Air Station and he was forced to out-of-control eject over the Gulf," Kasper said. Recovery efforts for the $18 million jet were expected to begin Thursday. "We saw him lose power, and he slowly coasted down," Paul Gordon, a Montgomery, Ala., roofer told WPMI-TV in Mobile, Ala. The last crash involving a Blue Angels jet ended in the deaths of two pilots in October 1999.
- "Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure. "
George W. Bush
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Ei Temporis Vita Semper Resumo Sese
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 Wondering what could've happened to kill both engines... an F/A-18 (especially a modified one such as the B.A.'s use) is more than capable of bringing it's pilot home on one turbine but too lose both, that's a very rare occurance to say the least. My guess is the problem was electrical rather than mechanical in nature.
"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable." Thorax
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Strac Trooper
 
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The Blues don't fly specially modified Jets...they're stock. a one engine loss can kill a bird, especially an FA-18. This Jet (C model...the Angels don't have super hornets yet) has only 18k LB of thrust on one engine. With the A/C loaded out to 36K lb...2 lb per lb of thrust = not too good. Especially if in a low altitude mission (like Airshow displays)
 
Fighters are our salvation, But BOMBERS alone provide us with the means of VICTORY! - Winston Churchill
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Ei Temporis Vita Semper Resumo Sese
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They are modified to increase reliability during aerobatics just like the Thunderbirds F-16's are with things like additional pumps to ensure continuous hydraulic pressure during inverted flight and such. Got to work on a T-bird plane while in the avionics phase of my tech school for the air gaurd and was surprised by some of the changes that had been made. F/A-18 can indeed stay aloft and land with one engine out, just can't perform any radical maneuvers. The witness was quoted as saying the aircraft was gliding... indicating he wasn't rolling or pulling G's and the plane was under control.
"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable." Thorax
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