Newspaper report

A pilot with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels died today when his plane crashed into a South Carolina neighborhood during an air show, authorities said.

Witnesses said the elite demonstration team was flying in formation near the end of the show at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort when one of the six F/A-18 Hornet jets dropped below the trees and crashed. Wreckage showered down, and eight people on the ground were injured. Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit ” “plenty of houses and mobile homes.”

“It was just a big fireball coming at me,” said Voegeli, 37. “It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them.”

County Coroner Curt Copeland said the pilot was killed but officials did not release his identity. Local media reports indicated that the No. 6 jet crashed. The No. 6 jet is piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis, 32, of Pittsfield, Mass.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Blue Angels Lt. Cmdr Anthony Walley, who flies the No. 2 jet, said no other jets were involved in the crash.

“Our squadron and the entire U.S. Navy are grieving the loss of a great American, a great naval officer and, most of all, a great friend,” Walley said.

When the Blue Angels performed in San Francisco in October, Davis, while serving as the team’s narrator, flew three guests, including this reporter, during individual 45-minute flights.

As we prepared to take off from San Francisco International Airport, Davis chatted with air traffic control, checked his instruments and made clear he wasn’t out there to showboat.

“This is not an opportunity for me to try and make you sick or try and make you black out, so at any time if you don’t feel comfortable, or you feel like you’re losing consciousness or you’re feeling nauseous, just say stop — or say anything — and we’ll stop what we’re doing and we’ll find something else to do that doesn’t involve making you feel ill,” Davis, whose call sign is “Kojak,” told me before our flight on Oct. 4.

A commercial pilot on a neighboring runway got on the air and said, “Hey Blue Angel 7, the two naval aviators in the Delta jet over there wish they were flying that thing.”

“Copy that,” Davis replied with a chuckle.

Like all Blue Angels, Davis was the consummate naval aviator who didn’t break a sweat during some very challenging maneuvers. “Keep breathing, keep flexing, Henry,” Davis said in a normal voice as this reporter passed out at 7 Gs.

Today’s crash happened during the Blue Angels’ seventh show this season. During a typical show, four jets alternate in front of the crowd while the two other jets, known as “solos,” fly toward each other and do other maneuvers in tandem. This year, Davis was the “opposing solo” pilot and the team’s applicants officer, who helped screen Blue Angels’ pilots for the 2008 team.

An off-duty air traffic controller at the military base told CNN that birds often pose a problem to planes in the area. Blue Angel pilots can dodge birds during level flight but less so during precise aerial maneuvers.

The last Blue Angels fatality happened in October 1999 in Georgia. Pilots Kieron O’Connor and Kevin Colling, flying in a two-seater Hornet jet, died while trying to land during a training flight. An investigation found that O’Connor might have suffered a rib injury before the flight that affected his ability to fight off G-forces by tensing his abdominal muscles.

The Blue Angels are trained to ward off G-forces without the help of G-suits, garments with air bladders that repeatedly deflate and inflate to help maintain blood supply to the brain. The suits’ movements would interfere with the control stick between a pilot’s legs.

Finally an oldie…
…a venezuelan Jet Provost =D

regards.-

Hi there,

Can you help with any more photos of operational Venezuelan AF Jet Provosts?

Many thanks

Ask Albert?

Hi Peter,

Indeed the “Red Knight” was a single all-dayglo red T-33, sometimes erroneously referred to as the “Red Knights” by those that thought there was a team! The Red Knight operated for ten years during 1959-1969 from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. The first pilot was Flt.Lt.Roy Windover, the pilots changing each season. Several different T-33s were used over the years including 21057,21574 and 21630 and were all equipped to make smoke. The T-33A was replaced by a Canadair Tutor for the 1968 and ’69 season and only one is known to have been used, being 26154 which was not dayglo red, but a vermillion red colour. The last performance was at the end of the 1969 season. One of the Red Knight T-33s is preserved in the Rockcliffe, Ontario collection.

Hi Guys
Thanks for the help, we now know exactly what colour scheme XN584 should be wearing, and have photos to prove it! thanks again Graham.
What we now need to know is,
1) What are the widths of the bands both dark and light blue, on the RAF Cranwell tail band.
2) Does anyone know where we might be able to obtain 2 of the RAF Cranwell station badges shown in the center of the light blue band?
Once again, any help is appriciated.

I may have been a bit generous with my ‘guestimation’ of the band width, as it’s probably more like 16″ with the outer dark blue edges about 3″. The badge is a water-slide decal. Have you tried contacting the RAF Cranwell Community Relations Officer? Surely they must have a stock of these decals?

‘Ask Albert’?

Firstly, I’m not sure if any T.3As survived with the RAF College to see the later red/white/grey scheme, as I have yet to see a photo of one. However, the RAF College’s T.4s certainly survived to see that scheme and indeed wore the light blue fuselage band. Here is XS181 that I photographed at Mildenhall on 22 May 1971 and a close-up of that band. Not quite sure of the dimensions, but I would guess about 2.5ft width. The colour was ‘Cambridge blue’ or BS112 ‘Arctic Blue’ or translated into US terms, Federal Standard FS15200. Failing that, PANTONE Blue 2915C would be their best match – the choice is yours! The borders of the band were ‘Oxford Blue’ or ’roundel blue’. Good Luck!