Just retired from the DoD in December. The Navy depot I was attached to reworks and overhauls this platform. I’ve done fod walks around ‘em on many occasions. I was in QA and can’t recall any major issues cropping up on them in the time my depot has had custody. I agree they’re forgiving which is why they are trainers. Also, IMO the sex of the crew has zero to do with this incident. I think I’ll reach out to my X-coworkers and see if they know anything. I suspect a JAG will be convened wherever maintenance was done on this A/C last.
RIP to these two military heroes.
Yes.
I was a jet mechanic in the USN, and became quite interested in the nature of mishaps by reading the monthly incident reporting that came out for fleet consumption. I can’t remember the document’s title now.
Then, in my line of work, I often have to investigate and report on things, and since I dealt with radioactivity and later, IT, I have read extensively on nuclear mishaps, aviation mishaps, and now...IT mishaps (Doing Root Cause Analysis for things that don’t go well in IT)
In all of these things, humans are most often the weakest link, but all the other things do come into play, poor design, unexpected failures, etc.
Aviation mishaps are often not the result of just one failure...a cumulation of small, non-fatal things happen, often resulting in a pilot making a poor decision as things spiral out of control.
One of my favorite books is Frederick Forsyth’s “The Shepherd” which illustrates in novel format how things snowball when in an aircraft, eventually boxing the pilot into a terrible situation.
By the way, thanks for your service in the DOD, V_TWIN. Hope you are enjoying your retirement...