Originally posted by The Wiz
What happens to the pilot if his aircraft crashes? IS he grounded for a period of time to see what happened, how does that work?
Good question. Unfortunetly, I've been there done that. Not sure if the Air Force is the same but the Navy has 3 categories of mishaps: A, B, C. A Class C is $20K dollars or more in damage. A Class B is greater than $100K up to one million. A Class A is greater than 1 million and/or loss of life/serious injury. A CO can ask for a waiver if the known cause of the accident was purely mechanical, meaning not pilot error. In that case, the aviator(s) are usually up flying is a very short time.
A Class A is a mandatory FNAEB (unlessed waived), JAG investigation, and mishap investigation. Depending on many factors, this process could take a long time. Mine took a total of 6 months before I was cleared to fly again. Then it took another 2 months to even get back into the aircraft. FNAEB's can also be convened for Class B and C mishaps as well.