A T-45C Goshawk out of Meridian, Mississippi is reported to have crashed in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains near Tellico Plains, Tennessee, with the loss of the instructor and student.

...nickel on the grass....

Seconded...blue skies and tailwinds.

Mishap while on a LL training route? Sad indeed.

Fair winds and following seas.

It is reported that the debris path is over a mile long with parts on either side of a road leading to a fish hatchery and that there was no attempt at ejection by either crew member. The crash site is very close to the Tennessee/North Carolina border.

One witness on the ground said she saw three aircraft at low level and described "bangs" (compressor stalls?) coming from one aircraft. So, low-level, single-engine maneuvering over mountainous terrain? If her observations were correct or not you would think the Navy would have looked at the safety record of the twin-engine T-38 and the twin-engine T-37 and the twin-engine T2C Buckeye before buying a single-engine trainer.

They traded 3 engines and 2 aircraft for 1 engine and one aircraft.

We've said the same thing about going to the F-35.
Their answer on that issue is the dependability of the F-35's single engine on the test stand. Not that the USN/USMC don't have a mixed history of single-vs-twin engined aircraft operating blue water ops.

They did...

That you attribute any validity at all to a witness on the ground is disturbing if you are involved in aviation.