Wow. Sad news.
One fourth of all Navy T-39N planes have now crashed. None have had survivors. Hate the day I get to flight school and have to board that bird.
Why don't you worry about getting there first, kid? There are aviation safety officers down in Pensacola who just lost friends and coworkers. Those very people are now having to pick through the wreckage and conduct an investigation so maybe, just maybe, we can figure out what happened and . . . oh, I don't know. Maybe NOT LOSE SOMEONE ELSE?
I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because of your profile, as it proves that you're clueless to the fact that you're talking out of your ass. I worked with those very officers until just a few months ago, along with the mishap crew. I'd have to check my logbook to be sure, but chances are I've got flight time in that jet.
OK, great, so that means I'm just beating my chest at how I've got inside gouge about it all went down, huh? No, I'm not and I don't. I don't have a damn clue. If I did, I'd be sharing it with the mishap board, not here. But the idea that the men and women in VT-86 and Naval Aviation as a whole would allow ourselves and our squadronmates to fly an aircraft which is so unsafe that you would rue the day you even got orders to it is an insult to the professionalism of the fraternity you claim to hope to join. I know you didn't mean it, but for crying out loud, consider your audience before you post.
Life is not perfect. Mishaps happen and sometimes people are killed. Flying aircraft the way we do in the environments we do, with the funding we have has risks. We do the best we can to mitigate these risks. Our mishap rate is minuscule compared to what it used to be when guys like A4s took to the air, because we LEARN FROM WHAT WENT WRONG. Life is not a Hollywood movie, and therefore Naval Aviation doesn't go into spontaneous cover-our-ass conspiracy mode every time something goes wrong. We figure out what went down and we fix it.