Quote:
Originally Posted by USMCFLYR
Have you seen incidents like this in the USAF?
Since most mishaps have some factor of human error whether it be the common 'pilot error' or maintenance factor, I would expect to see more than a few courts cases and at least through my years of service and involvement with safety in Naval Aviation I never once saw these types of charges brought against a pilot (remember the mishap in San Diego that killed 4 of the Korean family), and this particular mishap had some maintenance culpability too.
Recently the USCG tried to bring charges against a helo co-pilot and the charges were eventually dropped.
USMCFLYR
Yes sir, I have. One mishap in Spangdalem, a mx crew had taken over a job to reinstall the mixer assembly on the F-15. The mixer would take 1ea lateral and longitudinal input and turn it into 6 outputs. It was RARELY an area that we worked. And at the time, the mixer assm was painted 1 color, zinc blue green. Lateral rods are the same color, but long rods are white (I could have that backwards) and the mixer was one color.
Long story short, the flight controls got crossed. They missed it on their ops check. The pilot missed it on his flight control check. The crew chief launching the jet missed it. The pilot missed the cross control again at EOR.
He was number 2 in a 2 ship t/o.
Rotate, started applying lateral inputs to the stick and the jet would roll opposite. The pilot would apply the input to stop the roll, but made it worse because of the cross control. The jet ended up upside down. He was alive when first responders arrived with a portion of his head gone.
2 Crew Chief's charged with negligent homicide. One committed suicide. Charges finally dropped. This was right around the time of the blackhawk shoot down in Iraq.