Navy T39 Down

BobDDuck

BobDDuck

Island Bus Driver
No info really... just that it crashed somewhere in George. 4 people on board. 3 confirmed killed.

I think the T39 is the military version of the Saberliner?
 
BobDDuck said:
No info really... just that it crashed somewhere in George. 4 people on board. 3 confirmed killed.

I think the T39 is the military version of the Saberliner?
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Indeed it is a Sabreliner. Flown by VT-86 squadron outof P-Cola by contract pilots for NFO tactical jet training.

They had another one crash in Georgia about 5 years ago, and a midair over P-Cola bay in the late '90s.
 
jhugz said:
Sad RIP fellow aviatiors...Mike can you expand a little more on their role?
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For Naval Flight Officers (USN version of Navigator/Weapons System Officer/backseater), this jet serves as the advanced trainer for them. The students fly as co-pilots, as well as get radar training in the back. They're flown by old-head contract pilots, and practice radar intercepts, low-levels, etc, and are nearly fully aerobatic (as Bob Hoover has shown).

Bob Hoover in his Shrike Commander and Saberliner:

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MikeD said:
For Naval Flight Officers (USN version of Navigator/Weapons System Officer/backseater), this jet serves as the advanced trainer for them. The students fly as co-pilots, as well as get radar training in the back. They're flown by old-head contract pilots, and practice radar intercepts, low-levels, etc, and are nearly fully aerobatic (as Bob Hoover has shown).

Bob Hoover in his Shrike Commander and Saberliner:

[yt]gZPyM2PJcFM[/yt]
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Hmm. With an aircraft like that, I wonder what happened. Airframe fatiuge would be on the top of my suspect's list. Sad indeed.
 
mshunter said:
Hmm. With an aircraft like that, I wonder what happened. Airframe fatiuge would be on the top of my suspect's list. Sad indeed.
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I don't know, they're well maintained.

You have to consider the nature of ops too, depending on the phase of flight. Low-level, high-speed navigation......ops of that nature. Zig when you should of zagged, and it won't end up good. Not saying there's any cause right now, but just that there are a whole slew of possibilities, above and beyond an airframe problem IMHO.
 
MikeD said:
I don't know, they're well maintained.

You have to consider the nature of ops too, depending on the phase of flight. Low-level, high-speed navigation......ops of that nature. Zig when you should of zagged, and it won't end up good. Not saying there's any cause right now, but just that there are a whole slew of possibilities, above and beyond an airframe problem IMHO.
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Well your better educated than me on a subject like this. Do you think we will ever know, seeing as how it's a military hush hush kind of thing?

Edit to add: No amount of maint. can make up for a 40+year old aircraft. Such is the reason why PA-44's have a life limited wing spar AD. Just sayin. I'm not trying to Monday morning this, just an observation on the aircrafts age and intended use.
 
mshunter said:
Well your better educated than me on a subject like this. Do you think we will ever know, seeing as how it's a military hush hush kind of thing?
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Yes. Theres a separate Safety Investigation that's hush-hush that's for military safety use. Then there's the Accident Investigation that comes immediately after the Safety Investigation, that's public record and exists to determine blame. Have done both jobs in my time. Interesting being "white hat" with the first one, and "black hat" with the second.
 
mshunter said:
Well your better educated than me on a subject like this. Do you think we will ever know, seeing as how it's a military hush hush kind of thing?

Edit to add: No amount of maint. can make up for a 40+year old aircraft. Such is the reason why PA-44's have a life limited wing spar AD. Just sayin. I'm not trying to Monday morning this, just an observation on the aircrafts age and intended use.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/12/georgia.military.aircraft.down/index.html?hpt=T2

"We got reports that it was flying pretty low," Bosen said. The plane had flown north-northeast over the nearby town of Blue Ridge before it went down about 4:40 p.m., he said.
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VR-1052/1056 low-level MTR runs just south of that area.

In Jan 2006, another Saberliner from the same squadron crashed in North Georgia after taking off from Chattanooga, TN. In fact, it was flying the same exact MTR route as this one, and crashed into a hill about 40 miles west-southwest of this jet's accident site.

Pretty eerie.
 
RIP to the crew...I have quite a few friends training out in PNS, I hope none of them were involved!
 
vikingair said:
Very very sad..RIP and prayers for families and friends.



Any idea where I could find more info on this?
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Do a search of the FAA's AD list. IIRC they are limited to something like 14,900 hrs. Then you get to junk the whole freakin thing. Not allowed to replace the wing spar. Like you'd want to anyways. I think ATP is the only school to have timed one out.

Edit to add: Start here: http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAD.nsf/MainFrame?OpenFrameSet
 
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Footage was over North Georgia, near the same area this T39 went down.

The hanglider pilot, a close friend of an associate of mine, has contacted the NTSB and NAS Pensacola with the footage. Will be interesting to see what happens.
 
surreal1221 said:
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Footage was over North Georgia, near the same area this T39 went down.

The hanglider pilot, a close friend of an associate of mine, has contacted the NTSB and NAS Pensacola with the footage. Will be interesting to see what happens.
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Probably nothing......they were flying on a VR route, and he should have known where he was flying. We have lots of close calls with folks who can't seem to avoid VR and IR routes, and although we are getting traffic advisories from ATC, most of the time it is stuff like this where they are either not talking/squawking, or are just too low. I'm sure it will come out as a HAZREP through the appropriate WESS/Navy channels, but don't expect anything to come of it if they were flying where they were cleared to be. Probably scared the crap out of everyone though....hope your friend learned his lesson.
 
I'm quick to rush to their defense as well...

May not even be the same crew, but from what I understand is that the plane in the video lingered over the guy and finally made a close pass at him.

Just a messenger.

My friend - Nah, a close friend of an associate of mine.
 
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