Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.
Air Force officials said this morning that the September crash of a Thunderbird F-16 during an air show in Idaho was the result of pilot error.
The pilot of the aircraft, Capt. Chris Stricklin, 31, misinterpreted the altitude required to complete a takeoff maneuver, according to an accident investigation report. The pilot incorrectly climbed to 1,670 feet instead of 2,500 feet before initiating the maneuver.
Col. Robert Beletic, commander of the 20th Operations Group at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., chaired the investigative board and said that Stricklin miscalculated the sea-level altitude before the crash.
"Nellis Air Force Base is 2,000 feet above sea level and Mountain Home Air Force Base, where he was flying, is 3,000 feet above sea level," Beletic said. "It appears that for a split secod he reverted back to his Nellis patterns because he was about 1,000 feet short of where he needed to be."
Stricklin ejected from the F-16C safely about 140 feet above ground and no one in the crowd was injured. The ejection was just eight-tenths of a second before impact. The report also said that when Stricklin realized something was wrong, he rolled the aircraft slightly to the left to ensure it would hit the ground away from the crowd.
About 85,000 spectators were at Mountain Home Air Force Base's "Gunfighter Skies 2003" air show in Idaho on Sept. 14 when one of the red, white and blue F-16s based at Nellis Air Force Base crashed to the ground and exploded.
Stricklin was flying plane No. 6, also known as the "opposing solo." While four of the F-16s fly different maneuvers in a tight formation, Stricklin and another pilot known as the "lead solo" fly maneuvers in which they pass by each other at high speeds.
Last year was Stricklin's first season with the Thunderbirds, and he has more than 1,500 hours of flying time as an Air Force pilot. Stricklin, who is from Shelby, Ala., crashed his F-16C while performing a "Split S," a maneuver that forces the pilot to barrel roll and then go into a dive mimicking the shape of the letter S. He had done the same maneuver about 200 times.
According to witnesses the jet was the last of the six to take off as part of a precision-flying demonstration. It climbed straight into the sky and Stricklin performed the barrel roll.
While upside down, Stricklin maneuvered the jet into a dive. As the jet continued to dive, it appeared to have an engine failure, and Stricklin ejected seconds before the crash, witnesses said. The plane was flying at 250 mph when it crashed.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene to protect onlookers from possibly dangerous gas fumes and flying debris from the nearly $20.4 million plane.
The report said that toxicology tests showed Stricklin had no drugs or alcohol in his system prior to the crash and that the crash was caused by his misinterpretation of the altitude.
At a press conference today officials announced that Stricklin has been reassigned to the Pentagon.
Lt. Col. Richard McSpadden, Thunderbird commander, said that the Thunderbirds will return to a six-plane show when their season begins in March.
The Thunderbirds had only been flying five planes in the latter part of 2003 due to Stricklin's crash.
"I'm thankful that no one was hurt in the accident, and that's a product of the intense design that we put into our practice season," McSpadden said.
"We train every day so that if something goes wrong instinct kicks in, and that's what happened in this case," he said.
The crash came during the 50th anniversary year of the team, which has flown more than 4,500 shows for more than 300 million spectators across the globe. The unit moved to Nellis from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., in 1956.
Stricklin's crash is one of many that the team has had to overcome during the last half century.
In April 1999 the team was grounded for about two months after two of the F-16s bumped wings in midair at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. Both of the pilots involved managed to land their planes safely.
One of the deadliest military crashes in Southern Nevada involved the Thunderbirds in 1982. The "Diamond Crash" occurred on Jan. 18, 1982, at Indian Springs when four Thunderbird pilots crashed and were killed.
The four were flying T-38 jets in a diamond formation when they crashed. The Thunderbirds employ about 130 people. The unit has 12 officers, eight of whom are pilots, with six of the pilots flying the demonstrations.
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