Two F/A-18 pilots have been grounded after flying just a few hundred feet above Bobby Dodd Stadium in downtown Atlanta for a fly over before a Georgia Tech football game last year.
From the Daily Press:
The board found that they chose to fly using barometric altitude measurements (feet above sea level) instead of radar altitude measurements (feet above ground level) but failed to adjust their low-altitude warning systems accordingly.
By the time the alarm sounded, the pilots didn’t have enough time to correct the mistake.
Although the pilots “inexplicably failed to recognize” how low they were flying, the board concluded, their lapse was neither intentional nor malicious. It recommended putting both pilots on probation, an outcome endorsed and forwarded up multiple levels of the chain of command.
But the final authority on the matter, Rear Adm. R.J. O’Hanlon, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, disputed the conclusion that Condon, the lead pilot, had unintentionally flown that low.
”The arguments written by prior endorsers that LCDR Condon’s actions were an honest mistake are not persuasive,” O’Hanlon wrote. “He is a senior, very experienced department head who placed his aircraft and wingman in a very dangerous position.”
O’Hanlon also had tough words for Fryman. Despite a spotless record, O’Hanlon wrote, Fryman’s complacent response to the altitude transgression and lack of situational awareness were “unforgivable in my view.”
That’s sad that the two pilots lost their wings over this. They either made an honest mistake or wanted to give everyone a good show and now years of hard work has been erased because of it.
