Not a good two weeks in USN fighter aviation
It's surprising how you might not find out about these things without looking in the right places. This is a reminder of how very dangerous the fighter pilot profession is. I recently was looking at the list of aircraft dispositions for USN fighters and it's disheartening how many are lost this way.
March 30: U.S. Marine Corps. F/A-18 engine explodes onoard USS John C. Stennis; 11 injured
April 6: Two Killed in El Centro, California Fighter Jet Crash
April 11: Jet Catches Fire Aboard USS Carl Vinson
Both of the engine fires were in F/A-18C Hornets, which is the older and smaller version of the aircraft currently being used. In the El Centro crash the aircraft was identified as a Super Hornet, the larger version. The two pilot model is the F/A 18F. It looks like all of these were doing pre-deployment training of some type. I haven't seen anything yet on what the immediate cause of the El Centro crash was. I'll be curious to see if the engine fire issues are found related and whether or not any stand-down comes of this.
Oh and just to make things extra special Naval training squadron commander relieved of duty.
This is the guy that runs the squadron giving new pilots the training in the aircraft they are actually going to be flying in potential combat. Before that they've been through initial flight training in a turboprop and "type" training in a small jet. So like Kara's boss when she was training Zak to fly a Viper.
March 30: U.S. Marine Corps. F/A-18 engine explodes onoard USS John C. Stennis; 11 injured
April 6: Two Killed in El Centro, California Fighter Jet Crash
April 11: Jet Catches Fire Aboard USS Carl Vinson
Both of the engine fires were in F/A-18C Hornets, which is the older and smaller version of the aircraft currently being used. In the El Centro crash the aircraft was identified as a Super Hornet, the larger version. The two pilot model is the F/A 18F. It looks like all of these were doing pre-deployment training of some type. I haven't seen anything yet on what the immediate cause of the El Centro crash was. I'll be curious to see if the engine fire issues are found related and whether or not any stand-down comes of this.
Oh and just to make things extra special Naval training squadron commander relieved of duty.
This is the guy that runs the squadron giving new pilots the training in the aircraft they are actually going to be flying in potential combat. Before that they've been through initial flight training in a turboprop and "type" training in a small jet. So like Kara's boss when she was training Zak to fly a Viper.