Posted on 08/29/2014 8:30:34 AM PDT by Gopher Broke
I was hoping for better news. Vaya con dios buddy.
You have to see a high speed jet crash to understand.
The Pilot was not able to eject. F-15 impacted at high rate of speed and steep angle. Evidence at crash site confirmed no ejection. Prayers to family and Squadron mates.
Think about it a little more...
Based upon early information, it is unremarkable that ejection at 500K and 35,000 feet would be fatal. Early reports say there was one brief call of trouble. Sounds like control or structural failure. In general, ejection above an airspeed greater than 250K is fatal. Add the fall from 35,000 feet, which requires positive pressure O2 and the outlook is dim.
May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. And may Perpetual Light shine upon them.
Prayers up for those who loved him, too.
My guess is they want to say as little as possible right now out of respect for the man’s loved ones. “No word”, I suspect is like “no comment” here.
“Officials have confirmed Thursday that the pilot in Wednesday’s crash F-15C Eagle was fatally injured.”
“No word on whether officials have found the pilot’s body.”
Beyond this confusing write-up, yes, he perished. Until recently, he was the former squadron commander of a friends son.
Tragic.
That is true, and add high speed to the equation and you can perish from impact with the air.
Lost a friend that way. . .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HecyxhXDepU (Brian survived but his back-seater Dennis White, did not).
I was on a crash recovery crew at Holloman AFB in the 80’s. An F-15 went down with pilot on board. We found pieces of him, most the size of a quarter, hanging in every bush or tree around. We had a medical examiner along who had to make a determination of whether what we were putting in the bag was human.
There was no body to “find”
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