Posted on 09/15/2003 12:39:08 PM PDT by chance33_98
Air Force Thunderbird Crashes At Idaho Air Show
By Editorial Staff and Associated Press
BOISE - Most of video cameras were focused on the first four Thunderbirds at the "Gunfighter Skies" air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base. But it was the last one that people here will never forget. An Air Force F-16C plowing into the ground before 85-thousand stunned spectators. The pilot maneuvered the jet into a dive and steered toward the crowd. Then seemed to suffer engine failure when he pilot tried to pull up, witnesses said.
Will Hannold saw the devastation firsthand, "I was horrified, I couldn't believe it. I got sick to my stomach. I wasn't sure if he survived." The crowd was transfixed by the fire ball. Hannold estimates it was two hundred yards long.
The horror was quickly replaced by elation when the pilot appeared in the distance. He had ejected from the F-16C moments before it crashed. "There was a cheer that went up, so we knew he was okay," said Hannold.
Kathy Staricco was rolling her camcorder and also caught the crash on tape, "The next thing I know, I just seen the plane for a second and the fire behind it and I heard the guy next to me say he just crashed. And I couldn't believe it, what he [had] just told me, everybody around me was just kind of quiet"
The cause of the crash will be determined by federal and Air Force investigators who also asked for all videotapes shot by cameras at the scene.
The Thunderbirds unit has performed air demonstrations since 1947. The jets at the air show were from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The plane's valued at about 18-point-eight million dollars.
Captain Chris Stricklin was hospitalized for observation and was released last night .
Capt Chris R. Stricklin, 31, in his first season with the Thunderbirds, flies the No. 6 jet as the Opposing Solo. Capt Stricklin entered the Air Force in 1994 from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Before his assignment to the team, Capt Stricklin served as a F-15C flight commander, instructor pilot, and flight examiner with the F-15C Formal Training Unit, 1st Fighter Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. He has logged more than 1,500 hours as an Air Force pilot, with more than 1,200 hours in F-15 C/D and F-16 C/D. Capt Stricklin calls Shelby, Alabama, home. (Bio/Photo Courtesy: http://www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/)
A spokeswoman said the Thunderbirds will continue to tour. An airshow is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Wichita, Kansas, then Janesville, Wisconsin on September 27th and 28th.
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