ABC news reported that President Obama thanked Turner for his service and expressed relief he wasn’t seriously injured. The jet skidded a few hundred yards across a grassy field, leaving a smudgy, gray mark before coming to rest on its belly.
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The Blue Angels will not participate in their scheduled air show this weekend.
Payne said the fuselage slid about 2,000 feet before coming to rest.
A USA military official confirms that the pilot of the AF Thunderbird ejected from his aircraft after the flyover for the graduation. Investigators said O’Connor had a rib injury that might have given him trouble tensing his abdominal muscles to avoid blacking out during maneuvers that exert extreme gravitational forces on pilots.
As of now, there has been no change to Thunderbirds’ scheduled show in Rhode Island on June 11-12 or to the OC Air Show on June 18-19.
A plane crashed south of Colorado Springs Thursday.
The jet, an F-16, appeared to be largely intact.
By then, first responders from Petersen and Colorado Springs were arriving on the scene, he said.
Despite two unrelated crashes involving U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots, the Ocean City Air Show will go on as planned, Ocean City Air Show officials announced Friday.
Turner bailed out of his F-16 jet just after doing a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama was speaking during a graduation.
The aerial demonstration teams have crashed dozens of times in their long histories.
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We will keep you updated on Air Show details as they come into our newsroom. The Thunderbirds have an annual operating budget of $35 million, said Air Force Staff Sgt. Katie Maricle, a spokeswoman for the Air Combat Command.
