Posted on 05/02/2008 7:42:35 AM PDT by Yo-Yo
The U.S. Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command suspended all T-38C Talon jet trainer flights on May 1 after a second fatal crash in as many weeks.
Two pilots were killed on the morning of May 1 when their aircraft assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base crashed. Names of the victims of the latest accident have not been released.
The other crash occurred during takeoff of a T-38 at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi on April 23.
Instructor pilot Major Blair Faulkner of the 43rd Flying Training Squadron and student pilot 2nd Lt. Matthew Emmons died in the accident. The last Columbus AFB fatalities in an air accident occurred 24 years ago when two T-38s collided in 1984. Three people died in that mishap.
U.S. Air Force, General William R. Looney III, AETC commander, ordered the stand-down of T-38s.
“We have no evidence that these incidents are related. But until we have a more complete understanding of the causes of both accidents, it’s prudent to stand down the T-38’s,” he said.
The Air Force is investigating the accidents. It operates about 500 of the supersonic, twin engine T-38s to prepare student pilots to fly fighter and bomber aircraft.
Wait, wait, wait.
Don’t you mean a MIG. Everyone (who has watched Top Gun) knows that it’s a MIG-28!
Hardee Har Har!
Musta went down because they tried to fly inverted.
I'm pretty sure those were F-20 Tigersharks, not T-38's. 
F-20
T-38
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/t-38/
The two-seaters were T-38 Talons.
This might be a questionable source for aeronautics buffs, but...
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Top_Gun_-_Trivia/id/2056309
I stand corrected. F-5 Tigers not F-20 Tigersharks.
ONe of the dumbest movies....ever.
I don’t know about it being the dumbest.
As a former avionics tech on the F-16, I have to give “Iron Eagle” that honor.
The movie was shot at Miramar, and the Navy used F-5Es and F-5Fs for their agressor squadron back then. Now I believe they use F-16s (F-16N?)
When the Adversary squadron in Key West was shut down, the A-4s went to the bone yard and most of the F/A-18s, F-5Es, F-5Fs and F-16Ns went to NAS Fallon. The rest went to the boneyard.
Nifty trivia: The F-16N is a F-16C with the F-16A cockpit and wing reinforcement to allow the ACMI pod to be carried in place of a Sidewinder on the right wingtip.
We had an odd bunch working for Lockheed Martin Logistics Management. We had old guys from both the Air Force and from Northrop that supported the Tigers, 30-something guys from the Air Force that supported the F-16s and a bunch of ex-Navy and Marine types that supported the F/A-18s.
Yup, I remember them. The Blue Angels transitioned from the F-4 to the A-4 roughly at the same time for the same reason. I also remember the horrible accident that led the Thunderbirds to switch to the F-16A.
Some more nifty trivia that I just learned: the F-16Ns were retired due to fuselage structure cracks, and now the Navy is flying embargoed Pakistani F-16As.
I did not know that either. I walked away from the contract maintenance game in the mid-nineties.
It was a good post-Navy job, and who could complain about getting paid to live in Key West?
But the program runs on a very thin margin and I was pressured to make a lot of shortcuts.
After McDonnel-Douglas took over the program I bailed out. They bid even lower than Lockheed-Martin and that meant even tighter margins.
Predictably, McD ran the program right into the ground. The Adversary program in Key West was shuttered within a year after I left.
“U.S. Air Force, General William R. Looney III, AETC commander, ordered the stand-down of T-38s.
“We have no evidence that these incidents are related. But until we have a more complete understanding of the causes of both accidents, it’s prudent to stand down the T-38’s,” he said. “
Somebody throw the BS flag at the good general, please.
If they didn’t have evidence that the accidents are related, they would not have grounded the fleet. I spent a year in the Wing Commander’s office and more than 4 years in the T-38 training squadron at Columbus AFB. I still live only a mile from the south gate. Grounding the fleet means lost training for every USAF pilot. That is a REALLY big deal in the pilot training world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they made this move as quickly as they did. There have been too many incidents in the past where the USAF did not act so quickly and prudently.
There must have been some really tight bungholes when the folks at Sheppard AFB called Training Command in San Antonio. The bosses were told that if you overlaid photos or video of the crashes, the only difference would have been the terrain.
Identical crashes 8 days apart, that cost us 4 pilots, and the General doesn’t think they are related? Yeah.... OK Sir.
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