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The pilot received only minor injuries and is now sitting at a desk job in the Pentagon.....probably never to pilot an aircraft again.

I thought I heard he was flying air patrols around D.C.?

I just took a minute to check and I couldn't find the article I'd read before that said that, so I could be wrong. But IIRC he wasn't grounded, just moved to a "regular" pilot position.

By Ken Ritter
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:37 p.m. January 21, 2004

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. - A pilot's error caused a Thunderbirds F-16 to
crash during a September air show in Idaho, the Air Force said Wednesday.

Capt. Chris R. Stricklin, of Shelby, Ala., misjudged his altitude before
beginning a maneuver, said Col. Robert Beletic, head of the six-member Air
Force board that investigated the crash at Mountain Home Air Force Base,
southeast of Boise. Stricklin realized his error and ejected after banking
the aircraft away from spectators.

Lt. Col. Richard McSpadden, who commands the Air Force precision military
flying team, said the pilot was flying a pattern he had performed at least
200 times before. But Stricklin failed to adequately compensate for the
airfield's elevation above sea level before beginning the takeoff maneuver
known as a split-S, he said.

Instead of topping out at 2,500 feet, the jet was only 1,670 feet above the
ground when it rolled over backward to return past the crowd. By then the
aircraft was too low for Stricklin to correct the maneuver, Beletic said.

"The pilot made a 1,000-foot mistake at low altitude," Beletic said. "Once
he put his nose to the ground, he had to eject at some point."

Stricklin bailed out of the $20.4 million aircraft flying about 250 miles
per hour 140 feet above the runway. The jet hit the ground less than a
second later and exploded in a fireball. Stricklin was unhurt, and no one on
the ground was injured.

"He made an honest mistake," McSpadden told a news conference at Nellis Air
Force Base, the Thunderbirds' training home near Las Vegas.

Stricklin, 31, remains a pilot, McSpadden said, but because of the error he
was reassigned last month to the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., without
completing his two-year stint with the Thunderbirds.

"We recognize that we're stewards of $20 million airplanes, and we take that
very seriously," he said.

The team canceled four performances after the crash, before resuming flying
in October, though the number of aircraft was cut from six to five.

The Thunderbirds will again fly with six aircraft when they begin a 42-stop,
2004 season on March 27-28 at Punta Gorda, Fla. One pilot who was with the
team last year will tour for a third year in Stricklin's spot, McSpadden
said.

Beletic said that in addition to the miscalculation and a momentary loss of
focus by Stricklin, the review board said a low margin for error contributed
to the crash. Fatigue was not a factor, McSpadden said.

The split-S maneuver remains in the show, with what McSpadden called minor
adjustments to ensure pilots correctly calculate their elevation above sea
level. The maneuver also will be flown at a higher altitude to increase the
margin for errors, he said.

The September crash was the second involving a Thunderbirds jet since the
team began using F-16s in 1983.

Pilot error was blamed for a Feb. 14, 1994, training crash involving in a
maneuver called a spiral descent at the Indian Springs Auxiliary Airfield,
northwest of Las Vegas. The pilot survived, but the maneuver was
discontinued.

The worst crash in Thunderbird history, dubbed the "Diamond Crash," came
when four pilots crashed Jan. 18, 1982, during training at Indian Springs. A
malfunction in the lead plane was blamed.

The Thunderbirds marked their 50th year in November.