Figures the press would blow everything out of proportion.
quote:
Thunderbirds in "Near Miss" -- ANN Exclusive Interview
When the Thunderbirds left Andrews AFB after the airshow two weekends ago, a pair of the pilots got some unwelcome national media attention with a couple near encounters in the air -- with a Mooney and with an airliner. ("Aftermath of Airshow at Andrews: Thunderbirds Catch Heck," 5-24 ANN.) We got more information over the weekend, from the source. Capt. Guy Hunneyman, who is the public affairs officer with the group, told us what happened:
"With the bad weather at Andrews... Thunderbird 5 became slightly disoriented on departure... This led to a cascade effect on the remainder of the aircraft..." A little background on how these fliers stay together for cross-countries is in order: "The departure is called a 'radar assisted trail departure,' that relies in part on each aircraft's following the preceding aircraft on a pre-briefed ground track, with the assistance of radar."
Things got a bit more messed up from there, and Thunderbirds 5, 7, and 8 caught the brunt of it. Here's one piece of that puzzle: "To compound the situation, the controller confused call signs, which resulted in directions' being given to Thunderbird 4, when in fact the intent was to give directions to Thunderbird 5."
"The purpose of our looking at this situation is not to assign blame, but rather to assess where we can improve our safety practices. From our end, we can only say that, 'mistakes were made,' and we're working with our people and the FAA to make sure that they don't happen again. We're looking at the situation very carefully, reviewing our procedures, to make sure that this never happens again."
What it sounded like to us, is that a lot of individually-insignificant elements added up to create a situation. Beyond what actually did happen, there were even some news reports about the Thunderbirds' violating the airspace of the Vice President's residence, Blair House; but these reports seem to have no basis in fact. Information from several sources puts the jets well north of that airspace.
"Like you, I've read the sensationalized stories in the papers; and it's kind of disheartening... We have some very professional aviators... they're not out there to be cavalier."
We'll quote the lead paragraph of the May 24 Washington Post as an example: "One member of the Thunderbirds, flying at 350 knots--about 390 mph--was heading toward a 3,500-foot ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains before controllers determined his location and warned the pilot to climb immediately. Two of the team's planes, high-performance F-16s, apparently violated restricted airspace over Vice President Gore's house." UPI was even more sensationalistic: "The Thunderbirds -- the Air Force's precision flying team -- created chaos in the skies over Washington as they left the area in formation far from precise." The San Francisco Chronicle tried it another way: "Two of the team's planes, high-performance F-16s, apparently violated restricted air space over Vice President Al Gore's house. Surprised air traffic controllers at Washington Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles Airport scrambled to get civilian airplanes out of the way and make radio contact with the F-16s."
Regarding the 'conflict with terrain' issue and Thunderbird 7, the reports the average media gave us were not too close to accurate, either. We found out that by the time the controllers issued their oft-reported 'warning' to the pilot, he was already in a climb.
Captain Hunneyman just wants to deal with facts, and to understand them; and thus to increase safety for the public and for his pilots. Sensationalism and politics have nothing to 'contribute' in the real world of flying. "We are working in close partnership with the FAA to determine the cause of this, and the investigation is still ongoing," the captain assured us.
