The CO of the Blue Angels has been relieved...

[Warbirdnerd]

From their Facebook page:

COMMANDER

NAVAL AIR FORCES

PRESS RELEASE

Naval Air Forces

Naval Air Station North Island

San Diego, CA 92135

(619) 767-1625

Fax: (619) 545-1140

May 27, 2011 PRESS RELEASE #: 2011017



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blue Angels C.O. Relieved


Chief of Naval Air Training, Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore, relieved Cmdr. Dave Koss, Commanding Officer of the Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron Friday, May 27, at his request following a lower-than-normal maneuver during the team’s last performance at the Lynchburg Regional Air Show May 22.

“With deep personal regret I shared with my command today that I will be voluntarily leaving the greatest flight demonstration team. I performed a maneuver that had an unacceptably low minimum altitude,” said Koss. “This maneuver, combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard that makes the Blue Angels the exceptional organization that it is, led to my decision to step down. I have the utmost respect for the Sailors and Marines of the Blue Angels organization and all that they embody. The reason this team is so successful, brings thrills to millions of fans across America, and represents the U.S. Navy so superbly is because of the absolute commitment to safety and perfection by every member of the team. I am honored to have been a part of this organization and I look forward to watching its success in the future.”

Koss will be replaced by Capt. Greg McWherter, who was the previous Blue Angels’ Commanding Officer, for the duration of the season.

This move requires the cancellation of the Blue Angels’ scheduled performances at the Rockford Airfest June 4-5 and the Evansville Freedom Festival Air Show June 11-12. The Blue Angels will remain in Pensacola for additional training and air show demonstration practice. Any potential changes to the team's future schedule will be announced at a later date.

The Blue Angels regret any inconvenience and look forward to continuing to represent the Navy and Marine Corps service members serving around the world.

-CNAF-

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

A tremendous display of leadership by this man. Bravo Zulu, Cmdr.

[michaelharadon]

Is there a "rest of the story"?

Michael the Paul Harvey-ist.

[67Cougar]

I have no inside info, but I think this was not just an isolated incident (single maneuver). Their show in Ft. Worth a few weeks ago was very sloppy (by their standards),with a 3 ship 'diamond' due to a pilot's illness (at least that's what we were told).

Yes, it is a stand up thing to do to step down, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was 'asked' to do so.

[CoastieJohn]

I have no inside info, but I think this was not just an isolated incident (single maneuver). Their show in Ft. Worth a few weeks ago was very sloppy (by their standards),with a 3 ship 'diamond' due to a pilot's illness (at least that's what we were told).

Yes, it is a stand up thing to do to step down, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was 'asked' to do so.

From my military experience, the person is often "invited to retire". In this case, he may have been invited to transfer his command. When you get an "invite" of this nature, the conventional wisdom is you accept.

[Speedy]

It's upsetting to see this, but I applaud the process...especially the 'peer process' that exists in the squadrons like this where if the team doesn't have the confidence in the leader, that can be expressed and something can be done with it.

I wish EVERYONE the best outcome from this.

[whistlingdeath77]

[Speedy]

By the way...the video of this is on YouTube. For those who havent' seen/heard, the diamond formation came down out on the bottom side of the loop and it looks like one of the wingmen may have been the one to call 'knock it off', because they break formation first, followed by the slot sliding back and pulling up in trail with the boss.

Guesstimate at 75-100 feet AGL.

Based on this part of the statement "combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard", I agree that this was not an isolated incident...rather the one that made everyone step back and re-evaluate.

Once again, that's not being critical or pointing any fingers. It's just unfortunate that in a situation like this when someone makes a mistake, it's played out on a public stage. I'm just glad everyone is safe.

[CoastieJohn]

Fast forward to the 1:40 point if you want to cut to the chase. Otherwise you have to sit thru some annoying airshow music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUWQlXQB20

[michaelharadon]

Is BA1's career over?

[51fixer]

I've noticed a fairly heavy hand at moving threads on the board recently.
Personally I think you are hitting the move button too much.
A discussion of the Blue Angles situation directly relates to many who post and visit here. Their are pilots, Warbird Pilots and also Airshow Pilots among your WIX followers. This type of discussion of what has happened, what the response is and how they deal with it is a great lesson to these pilots as well as to everyone else. It is relevant to us here and driving it off to who knows where doesn't seem right.
Recently the same was done with some posts relating to attending airshows to see warbirds.
The majority of the visitors seem to come to the WIX HAngar. I know there are other places to post things on this board but I rarely have time to visit them.
I know there are things that should get moved but in all honesty I'd rather have the freedom to avoid reading something than to have a heavy hand moving things in an excessive manner. I know it is a thankless job to admin a board. I respect the efforts put forth here but also ask that you might give a short explanation of why something gets moved.
It might educate us about how and what to post.

[WIXMOD-Alpha]

Understood... and it's back in the hangar for now. And FYI, I am an airshow pilot, too...
Just an FYI though, if you use the "new posts" button, you'll still see everything new on the site. It's at the upper right hand corner of the website.

[6trn4brn]

The Blue Angels had not done a show here in Lynchburg for almost 30 years. There was so much excitement and anticipation in the air, everyone was looking forward to them being here. Saturday, there were a lot of people struck with heat exhaustion and the fiasco that ensued when trying to get everyone back to Liberty University was totally FUBAR! The orgainizers quickly remedied a lot of the mistakes from Saturday and Sunday's show seems to have gone smoother.

Now this.

Sure hope this does not mean another 30 years before there is another show here

[Dudley Henriques]

Understood... and it's back in the hangar for now. And FYI, I am an airshow pilot, too...
Just an FYI though, if you use the "new posts" button, you'll still see everything new on the site. It's at the upper right hand corner of the website.

The in- house safety controls used by the Blues are extremely well organized and regimented. The maneuver schedule and each maneuver parameter is subject to strict compliance in order to insure formation integrity, display continuity, FAA compliance, and most of all crowd safety.
For all this to come together, the skill set for Blue #1 is specifically and exceptionally well defined.
Blue Lead is responsible for team positioning in 3 dimensional space at ALL times. Lead will establish the maneuver profile, maneuver positioning in relation to ingress and egress points and show center, pitch and roll rates for the formation, power settings for 2-3 and slot, and formation g management.
Lead in effect has to not only be smooth, but by voice, establish maneuver cadence so that execution is made simultaneously by the team with no control input lag between aircraft. In short, lead's every action has to be designed and executed in a manner both in voice and by action that allows the team to consider lead PREDICTABLE!
The instant lead becomes unpredictable, there's a serious safety issue.
I won't speculate on what happened in Va although I know what happened. The main point I'd like to make here is that the decision to change lead was in my opinion a sound one based on various observed factors concerning both past and present team performance. It was a safety decision and a good call.
Dudley Henriques

[JDK]

Interesting post on David's excellent blog.

http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2011/05/29 ... erobatics/

I can think of a number of occasions were national military aerobatic teams have, sadly, made a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT in the jargon) but I can't recall another occasion where a display team leader has stood down or been stood down due to a close incident or incidents. (I'm no expert on modern mil.) Of course you'd only have to go back a few years to when that event would not make a public press release.

Regards,