Flyby Pilots “Barely above 100 feet”

The Air Force Times revisits the T-38 flyby of the Iowa-Ohio State game, citing architectural dimensions to try to analyze the videos and claim the jets were “flying at a fraction of the minimum altitude required.”  (See prior article.)

Despite the CSI-like efforts of the Air Force Times, the Air Force (which has no connection with the paper) will conduct its own investigation and act based on those conclusions.

For its part, the University of Iowa didn’t care:

A spokesman for the university, which requested the flyover, declined to criticize the pilots.

“The goal of the flyover was to honor all military personnel with a memorable display, and the UI is pleased that goal was clearly accomplished,” Tom Moore said.

Flight discipline is certainly a valid point of criticism, but there’s a caution in overanalyzing such an event.  YouTube is full of videos of flyovers that might fail a trigonometric analysis of their altitude, especially when they appear to be level with the press box — or even lower.