Blue Angel down in Smyrna TN,

Just got a report that three Fort Hood solider were killed when their vehicle overturned in high waters, six are still missing.

Bad day to be in CONUS it seems.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Links are from Air Force Times and the other Navy Times so makes you wonder why they did that yet won't release the name.

a reply to: MamaJ

They won't release the name for 24 hours to allow for family notification and then other family members to be notified. That's why they didn't need to give the number of the Angel out. That aircraft flies a specific position assigned to a specific pilot. By giving that out they just identified the pilot.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thats what I was saying. They shouldn't give the number if they can't give the name.

a reply to: MamaJ

A name has been given, but I'm not going to repeat it until I know if it was from an official source. He was a Marine aviator.

a reply to: MamaJ

One of my fb friends is saying the pilot was Captain Jeff Kuss

a reply to: StratosFear

S sad, i have loved the Blue Angels since i was a wee lad. Still to this day one of my favourite songs is Dreams by Van Halen, i used to watch the film clip over and over and over.

R.I.P cool dude in the Bluebird

They said two separate witnesses had said it appeared to be a flame-out and the engine(s) appeared to sputter, the plane then couldn't get thrust and went down.

If they were performing the maneuver that it appears to be in the witness video (and the one I posted earlier), then a flame-out would be the worst kind of malfunction during a maneuver where the plane is going very slow. Sounds like maybe birds could have been the culprit. Two engine don't normally malfunction at the same time.

Yeah it's Captain Jeff Kuss
www.kiro7.com...

a reply to: MamaJ

He is a hero who shall never be forgotten. May he rest in piece. o7

a reply to: _BoneZ_

That video looks like he was still working the controls the whole way down instead of just punching out and hoping for the best.

Big set of brass ones on him.

They just had another witness on who said two of the planes were performing the maneuver I posted a video of earlier, then once they separated is when one of the planes had problems and went down.

Another witness that was close to the accident said that the plane was sputtering and could not get thrust and fell out of the sky.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Your video really showed there was a problem!

a reply to: Quantum12

Just to be clear, that video I posted was the maneuver that was being performed just before the accident. That is not video of today's accident. What you saw in that video is normal.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Oh so the plane going down was normal in the video

This is one reason social media and the media in general piss me off. The Navy has regulations that the crew name or names aren't released for 24 hours after the family is notified for a damn good reason. They need time to themselves and to spread the word to other family members. Now suddenly they're reading on Facebook, and other news sources that their family member is dead three hours later, possibly before the Navy has even told them.

a reply to: Quantum12

He didn't go down. He dove to accelerate and then pulled up and back around.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I get it now. That was be plan.

a reply to: Zaphod58

And according to witnesses, it's when they separated and he went down that he couldn't recover and kept going down.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

My mistake on the video.

That maneuver is called the cobra if memory serves. Not a whole hell of a lot of altitude to recover when it's performed at an air show, clearly.