I know the copilot survived as well - he was an IP at Little Rock in the 90's, scars and all. Crew certainly died, including some CCT in a jeep downtrack.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. The Inspector may have 20,000 hours of flight time, including 5,000 in the Herk - even if he doesn't, he can still think as he wishes. Although I could have said nothing, I'll share mine.
My opinion is that military aviation is a wondeful thing in that young people are given a tremendous amount of freedom, responsibility, and technology to go out and undertake the missions of our nation. Dovetailed in that is the reality that maturity, capability, judgement, and experience are skills that can't be taught as much as they are gained over time.
As with any mishap, there was an error chain. I have not read the report in years, nor would I be in position to share the details regardless. What I can say is that the pilot was pushing the tactical envelope for that particular firepower demo and that previous practices were flown with lightweight training loads. (The Sheridan tank extracted during the mishap probably averaged 40,000#.) There's more to it, but the video clearly shows an inability to arrest sink rate in what should have been a level-off close to the ground for the extraction.
The school of hard knocks often leaves a mark. When you fly a large, unarmed airplane and are asked to fly challenging missions in high-threat areas, you push the limits. Agreed, there was no threat at Ft Bragg that day, but "train like you fight, fight like you train" is the mantra. Sadly, we lost and scarred some folks that day. If there's anything good to say - it's that generations of crews have seen and learned from this painful mishap.
No one gets up in the morning and says, "I think I'll go cause a mishap today." He believed he was doing the right thing, no matter how wrong it may have been, both in agressiveness and technique.
So, think what you like, but unless you've walked a mile in those shoes, don't be surprised if a one-line remark draws further comment.
Respectfully,
Ken
_________________ "Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."
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