For the new folks, this is why we do not speculate on mishaps...

None of us want to be the cause of something like this so we don't discuss those involved or possible causal factors:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/04/19/wife-of-fort-carson-soldier-learns-of-his-death-on-facebook/

As a CACO Lead, this would be such a mess. Not cool.

I medevac'd the rest of his squad that did make it, bad day here in the Stan.

Not that this doesn't suck.....but what does this have to do with causal factors of a mishap?

This same type thing happened to my unit last deployment. Two lucky things kept it from being this bad: the wife didn't understand English well enough to get what our dumbass was saying, and more importantly, our wounded Marine didn't die. We thought he was going to.

If I could have legally beaten the offending Marine, I would have.

Instead he got maxed out at office hours and ADSEP'd.

IIRC, the whole "don't discuss causal factors" thing stems from the fact that this board is open (not sure if indexed by google, though) and could be quoted in Navy Times or something like that. You know, "Harrier Dude, a frequent poster on the Naval Aviation site airwarriors.com, stated that it looked like the engine ingested some FOD" or some other equally worthless (to us) statement that can be blown way out of proportion.

tl;dr - not a lot of potential upside to speculating about mishaps, tons of potential downside.

I got all that, and I agree to a large extent. I just don't see how the attached story has anything to do with speculating on mishap causes.

A total douchebag went VFR direct to a widow. Totally unacceptable.

I don't mind that. What bugged me were the people my wife worked with that would call her anytime they heard about a mishap to ask if it was me. Not hugely useful, especially when the Pecos mishap went down, as I was airborne in a phrog that day.

What if it was you? How is your wife supposed to answer that hours after your death?

Some people have ZERO common sense or tact.

Got a text message from my buddy on the morning of the Hornet mishap here in VA Beach. His text was "Dude, heard about the Hornet crash, are you guys ok?" My first thought was, WTF is he thinking? He's a former Hornet WSO and knows damn well PSW and I don't fly Hornets. Turned on the news, and it all made sense...

My point was that there is a reason we don't comment on mishaps, deaths or other tragic events until 1) The proper folks have been notified and 2) Any investigation has run its course.

Just because folks think they have some inside knowledge is not a reason to start commenting publicly on AW or other such public forum.

In this case, someone with inside knowledge made that info made publicly and the wife found out before the military could formally notify her. Did this case have to do with a aviation mishap, no. But the point is you don't comment on issues like these until the formal procedures have run their course. Once the military has released the info into the public domain then folks are free to comment.

Inside knowledge doesn't just have to be regarding a death. It could be a mishap or other such incident going on inside Naval Aviation that while folks may be privy to the information, they shouldn't be sharing it on the internet for all the world to read.

Years ago I was standing the MAG duty during a fatal mishap (not my MAG, the other coast's MAG). I was still pretty busy with the MAG CO wanting updates frequently.

I was out tending to various matters (inspecting the barracks) when I got a page (pre-cell phones) about "an emergency".

I called the POC who wanted to know who, exactly, was killed because "he knew people in that squadron".

Well, no shit. Seeing as it was the RAG, we ALL knew people in that squadron. Considering this person was a new guy pilot, you would have thought that he would know that:

A) I wouldn't/couldn't release information like that, and

B) I was kind of busy and didn't appreciate the "emergency" requirement that he made up.

Don't be that guy.

I totally get what you're saying, aside from "Any investigation has run its course. ".......

That can take months, and speculation won't change that.

In any event, allowing the notification of the next of kin to be done properly is the least we can do to help the bereaved cope with their loss. If that article helps somebody here learn what NOT to do, then that's great.

However, it doesn't appear from that article that it was speculation that notified the next of kin. A particular member of the platoon deliberately contacted the widow via Facebook and told her.

Also a douche move, but not the same as open speculation.

I don't understand how she got on the internet? That's not normal...or has it changed?

when we were in Iraq if something happened internet and comms were turned off til CACO could get to the NOK

ya true but it did say that she initially used Facebook to get into contact with the wife which means someone messed up and didn't kill the internet like they should have

I can get Facebook on my phone.

Correct, many guys have cellphones here and we have 2 types of networks, the standard Spawar system that is normally shut off quickly and Moralesat, which requires someone in the camp to actually pull the plug.

It takes time to shut down the whole network. There isn't actually a huge on/off switch on the CO's desk. Plus, it takes time for the word to even get to the CO and SPAWAR people.

When this happened to us, we had the system at River City while the MEDEVAC helo was still airborne and enroute to the STP. It was shut down inside of 10 minutes from the blast. We still had one idiot (from the affected platoon) race to the SPAWAR to start blabbing all over the world.

His excuse? We didn't get it shut down fast enough, so he was justified in contacting the NOK himself.

Wow there is some dumb people. I thought it was kind of understood that you dont run your mouth about it. Never did think about the cell phone networks over there.

hopefully the girl who is responsible for this gets punished for her stupidity.

I hope that he gets hammered for that utter stupidity, but let's not speculate about that though......

Who actually *wants* to do that notification? That's what I don't understand. It's not I job I'd ever want, so I certainly wouldn't try to circumvent the system in order to get the privilege of telling some woman her husband is dead. I can understand the innocent slip ups, to an extent, but to race to the task like it's some kind of Shotgun! dibs on the front seat is nonsensical.