T-Birds may be no-show for LV airshow

David Kihara

Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

The Thunderbirds may not be performing at the annual airshow at Nellis Air Force Base in November, officials said today.

That's because the U.S. Air Force's aerial acrobatic team will not perform again until an investigation into this weekend's minor mid-air mishap is completed.

The Aviation Nation air show at Nellis is planned for Nov. 12-13, and the investigation and any steps that need to be taken as a result of its conclusions may not be completed in time, said Master Sgt. George Jozens, spokesman for the Nellis-based Thunderbirds. An investigation into a mishap typically takes about 90 days, he said.

If past experience is any indication, however, the chances are good that the Aviation Nation headliners and hometown favorites will be part of this year's show in North Las Vegas.

In September 2003, a Thunderbird F-16 crashed during an air show in Idaho. None of the 85,000 spectators at the Mountain Home Air Force Base's air show were injured and the pilot ejected safely. The investigation into that crash found that pilot error was to blame.

The crash and subsequent investigation did not prevent the Thunderbirds from performing at Aviation Nation two months after the crash.

On Sunday, Capt. Angela Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Thunderbirds, said "We just want to make sure that everything is perfect before we go back up in the air" to perform.

The Thunderbirds canceled an aerial performance Sunday, a day after two of the group's F-16s touched each other in midair, sending an object from one of the planes plummeting into Lake Michigan.

The aerial acrobatic team cut short their performance Saturday when two of the jets made contact while flying in a diamond formation. A 4-foot-long missile rail came loose from one of the wings and fell into the water 2,500 feet from spectators.

The group performs at approximately 70 air shows a year. About 2 million people were expected to attend the two-day air and water show on the Chicago's lakefront over the weekend.

The last time two Thunderbird jets were reported to have made contact in the air was in 1999, Johnson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story