No pilots will be punished for botched takeoff

Thursday, May 25, 2000 | 9:21 a.m.

Pilots from the Air Force Thunderbirds precision flight team will not be grounded for a botched departure near the nation's capital, a spokesman said.

The incident left air controllers scrambling to move the F-16 fighter jets out of the area safely and avoid collisions with civilian aircraft.

Capt. Guy Hunneyman said the Air Force is reviewing procedures that were in place as the team departed Andrews Air Force Base, Md. for their return to Las Vegas after a weekend air show.

"No malice has been determined. Hence, no punishment, no reprimand," Hunneyman, public affairs officer for the team, said Wednesday.

The eight jets left Andrews in bad weather and one of the pilots was disoriented, throwing the formation into confusion in the heavily-used Washington, D.C. air traffic system. Following jets in the squadron fanned out in different directions, forcing controllers to quickly reposition civilian planes.

All aircraft in the area continued safely to their destinations and the Thunderbird team landed safely here Monday afternoon following a refueling stop in Springfield, Ill. The team is based at Nellis Air Force Base on the northern edge of Las Vegas.

The team was scheduled to depart Thursday for a weekend air show at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman William Shumann said Monday's departure was frantic "because you suddenly had some airplanes apparently off-course in congested, Class B airspace without a transponder being on and without following a flight plan."

Class B airspace is terminal airspace in the busiest areas of the country.

"No one can fly into that airspace without having a working transponder and prior clearance from the FAA," Shumann told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

When transponders are switched on and struck by radar beams, they automatically transmit information such as the plane's identity and its altitude.

Hunneyman said the team's departure, called an "eight-ship, radar-trail departure," only requires the first and last aircraft to have their transponders activated. He said the others were on standby.

Hunneyman said the team was reviewing departure procedures in the wake of Monday's incident.

In the confusion, one of the F-16s was ordered to climb after it was seen on radar flying at 390 mph toward a 3,500 foot ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two of the planes violated restricted airspace over Vice President Al Gore's residence. Another plane came within one mile horizontally and 700 feet vertically of an American Airlines MD-80 jetliner and a fifth was within 1.8 miles and 100 feet of a single-engine private plane.