{"id":35210,"date":"2016-06-03T00:15:48","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T03:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=35210"},"modified":"2016-11-24T21:34:06","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T00:34:06","slug":"usaf-thunderbirds-usn-blue-angels-both-suffer-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/03\/usaf-thunderbirds-usn-blue-angels-both-suffer-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"USAF Thunderbirds, USN Blue Angels Both Suffer Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US Air Force Thunderbird crashed while returning to Peterson AFB<\/a> in Colorado, following their performance over the graduation ceremony of the US Air Force Academy Class of 2016 — at which President Obama had just spoken<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photos taken by local news crews<\/a> indicate the F-16 appears to have slid inauspiciously along the ground — not unlike some other legends of aircraft that “crashed” but eventually flew again because they “crashed” so softly.<\/p>\n

\"thunderbird\"The F-16 pilot, Major Alex Turner, ejected and appeared to be uninjured. He was apparently not confined\u00a0to a hospital, as with most other pilots who eject. Rather, he met President Obama<\/a> at Peterson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At nearly the same time in Tennessee, a Navy Blue Angels airshow practice went wrong<\/a> when one of their F\/A-18 Hornets impacted the ground<\/a>. The pilot did not eject.<\/p>\n

One civilian witness indicated the Hornet appeared to fail to recover from a loop before hitting the ground.<\/p>\n

The Navy delayed release of the pilot’s name pending notification of next of kin, but an anonymous “official” made an unauthorized identification of the pilot as Marine Capt Jeff Kuss<\/a>.\u00a0 That identification was subsequently confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n