Jumbo jet pilot sacked for ‘fly-by’ at 28 feet (B 777-300 ER)

Times of London ^ | February 25, 2008 | NA

[Travis McGee]

No, the B-52 story is told at reply 28. The truth is even stranger than your guess.

[Interesting Times]

Wow! Awesome USAF B-52 story at your reply 28. I had no idea.

It really is an awesome story, as well as a brilliant piece of investigation and analysis of the command failures that preceded and enabled the disaster.

[Travis McGee]

Great Tex Johnson barrel roll video and story at 59! Thanks!

[Travis McGee]

Holy cow is right. Poor crew!

[Travis McGee]

I hope they teach that lesson in failure of leadership at the service academies etc. It does not apply only to pilots, of course.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

He’s gonna need the number for Truckmasters. Does anyone still have that?

[2111USMC]

I’ll bet it was fun!

As a passenger, as long as I knew he was going to do it, it would be great!

[Travis McGee]

Yeah, but those last few seconds were a bitch though.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

First... Way cool!

Second... I had no clue pilots earned $400,000 a year.

[EDINVA]

The person who should be fired is whoever came up with the painting design. It’s the most hideous plane I’ve ever seen.

[Balding_Eagle]

See post #83 for a link to a Utube of the entire incident.

[TankerKC]

I hope they teach that lesson in failure of leadership at the service academies etc. It does not apply only to pilots, of course.

They teach it at Air Command & Staff College....

[buccaneer81]

.I think the story, was this was his last flight prior to retirement with his family watching...

No, it was one of the other three on board, a check pilot who was retiring. And yes, sadly his family was there and watching as a damn fool killed him.

[buccaneer81]

The person who should be fired is whoever came up with the painting design. It’s the most hideous plane I’ve ever seen.

LOL! There are numerous examples of gaudy livery. Southwest is pretty ugly, as are SkyBus and the late, great Braniff.

[zipper]

As I understand it, the guy who crashed the B-52 in that video was an unqual’ed ground mechanic who took the B-52 up illegally after starting it up after maintenance and taxiing to a hanger for more work.

?? No, but there was a similar case involving a USAF C-130 many years ago -- a mechanic took it up for a spin, and was shot down. A very bizarre episode.

[Centurion2000]

WOW .. that Hong Kong approach is insane!!

[Ditto]

Interesting read in organizational dynamics. The short story is that the Alpha Dog got his way, with tragic results.

The same principles are true in any organization, albeit, most failures do not end up with loss of life in such a dramatic way.

That analysis is a classic business school case study. If it isn't, it should be used in every MBA program to teach people when to say no, even if it isn't 'politically correct' at the moment. Even (or especially) the Alpha dog needs to be told where the limits are.