Blue Angel Crash Video

WTOC in Savannah, Georgia has amatuer video of the Blue Angels Crash.

(ALSO - UPDATE ON PREVIOUSE BLUE ANGEL ENTRY...LT. CMDR. DAVIS ALSO FLEW NASCAR DRIVER DALE EARNHARDT JUNIOR...VIDEO IN PREVIOUS POST...IT'S A MUST WATCH!)

Story Number One (CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY) has video of Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis getting into his plane before the show and then it shows the maneuver and ensuing crash about 30 seconds into the story.

The second story (CLICK HERE FOR STORY 2) shows the same crash video but talks about finding the black box.

Watching the video it appears that Lt. Davis pulled an extremely tight high G turn to reverse the direction he was going so that he could rejoin the formation.

The black box should provide plenty of information about how many G's that turn produced and whether he was in control after the G-loading manuever that could have rendered him unconcious and unable to control his jet.

Unlike all other fighter pilots The Blue Angel's DON'T wear G-Suits to counteract the extreme forces that cause blood to rush out of the head during these high G manuevers. When I flew with the Thunderbirds in 1995 I wore a G-Suit and still went "Gray" during the 9-G turn at the my video of the flight.

The Blue Angels opt not to wear the G-Suits because the inflation of the air bladders on their legs could bump the control stick causing eratic control of the aircraft. (The Thunderbirds have a side mounted stick in their F-16's and don't have to worry about this issue.)

To get by without the G-Sute the Blue's learn to anticipate their G-Load and condition themselves to tighten their abs and thighs to prevent a blackout.

BUT....If Lt. Cmdr. Davis performed a manuever that was a higher G-Load than usual he may have very well blacked out causing the crash. Again referencing the video of the crash, notice that the plane never came back to wings level and based on publised reports there was no apparant attempt by the pilot to eject. Both of those factors make me think that he was blacked out, at least until too late to correct the problem. And looking at the attitude of the nose of the plane as it starts to go down it appears the jet may have also lost too much air speed to sustain flight at that angle of attack.

As far as trying to eject from the plane....the ejection seats in these craft are called Zero-Zero ejection seats because they will safely eject a pilot from a jet at Zero altitude and ZERO speed.


Back on September 14, 2003 the pilot flying USAF Thunderbird #6 crashed after miscalculating the altituded needed to perform a Split-S loop which caused him to be too close to the ground at the bottom of the loop. The pilot safely ejected 140 feet above the ground only 8-tenths of a second from impact.

Video of that crash here from inside and outside the plane.

Blue Angels Crash

UPDATE - Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis also took NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his celerity flight last year. The video is great, and funny at times, as Junior NEVER loses composure during the High-G manuevers up to about 7.6 Gs. I put the video of Dale Jr's flight at the bottom of this post. It's a MUST SEE!




I have sort of sat on this one but with my love of military flying I knew it would be just a matter of time before I had something to say about the crash of Blue Angel #6 on Saturday that killed the pilot Lt Kevin Davis.

Back in 1995 when I flew on a media flight with Thunderbirds I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was one of the coolest things I had ever done. I still have the pictures, video and signed artwork from the team. I was a treasured day I will always remember.



Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis was the narrator for the Blue Angels in 2006 and that gave him the duty of flying #7 for the media and celebrity flights including taking American Idol Kelly Clarkson up over the skies of Texas last May.



(side note - Today(4/24) is Kelly's Birthday and MINE as well )

During a Google Search tonight I found a member of the media who had her media flight with the Blue Angels just last May.




1010 WINS reporter Mona Rivera flew with the Blue Angels and Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis in May 2006 when they performed on Long Island.



The in flight video of Mona's media ride will send a chill up your spine.



Also, an NBC Story about Lt. Cmdr. Davis...


And if you haven't ever seen my Thunderbirds video.....



DALE EARNHARDT JUNIOR BLUE ANGEL'S FLIGHT