An F-16 with the Air Force Thunderbirds crashed Thursday afternoon after the group’s demonstration at the Air Force Academy commencement ceremony.
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The Air Force has indefinitely grounded its Thunderbirds demonstration team as a result of a crash Thursday in Colorado, which could cost the 2016 Toledo Air Show its headlining act if the grounding lasts more than six weeks.
“Our service members, no matter what their duties are, whether they’re flying or ground duties, have unsafe occupations and it is constant within their occupations”, said Kevin Kuhlmann, a former fighter pilot in the Air Force, who is now the associate chair of Metro State University’s Aviation and Aerospace Department.
ABC news reported that President Obama thanked Turner for his service and expressed relief he wasn’t seriously injured. “The President also thanked the first responders who acted quickly to tend to the pilot”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. The cause of the crash was under investigation, the Air Force official said.
The rest of the air show is set to go on, he said.
Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michal Kloeffler-Howard said the pilot ejected.
Smoke billows from the crash of a Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet in Smyrna, Tenn., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The accident occurred about six miles (nine kilometers) from Peterson Air Force Base.
The Blue Angels will not perform in an airshow that had been scheduled for this weekend, the Navy said.
The jets then did multiple fly-bys over the academy’s football stadium, where the ceremony took place, blasting by in tight formations or looping high overhead.
The Air Force Combat Command says Turner has more than 270 combat hours over Libya and Iraq. The Air Force has identified Turner as the pilot of a jet that crashed following a Thunderbirds flyover in Colorado.
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“I was (deployed) out on an aircraft carrier”.
