Report blames pilot error in Super Hornet crash - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Report blames pilot error in Super Hornet crash

Navy investigators have concluded that pilot error likely caused a fatal Super Hornet crash in 2011 near Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif.

Just minutes after taking off for a training flight, the F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed April 6 into a field about a half-mile west of the base.

The pilot, Lt. Matthew Lowe, 33, of Plantation, Fla., and the plane’s weapons officer, Lt. Nathan Williams, 28, of Oswego, N.Y., were practicing a “loaded roll” when the pilot apparently lost control, according to a report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Visalia Times-Delta of California — which is owned by Gannett, as is Navy Times — received a copy of the report and other documents related to the crash Jan. 30.

It took just 14 seconds from the moment the aircraft began the maneuver until it began a fatal dive and crashed, according to a summary report of the Navy’s findings.

Nobody on the ground was injured. Both Lowe and Williams were killed; the report says Williams managed to eject, but he was too close to the ground for his parachute to deploy and save his life.

“The mishap was caused by the aircrew’s failure to execute the maneuver in accordance with the prescribed airspeed and [angle of attack] parameters” for doing a loaded roll, according to the three-page summary issued Dec. 6 by Vice Adm. Allen Myers, Naval Air Forces commander.

Among the investigators’ conclusions:

• Lowe and Williams didn’t properly follow the instructions on doing the maneuver.

• Problems in previous flights were filmed but not shown to the two aviators afterward.

• The officers lacked sufficient understanding of the flight parameters and the flight computer system “that would have enhanced the safety margin of the loaded roll maneuver.”

Naval investigators concluded that the Super Hornet attempted the loaded roll moving too fast and at too steep an angle and that they lost control of the plane during the maneuver.

A video of the flight taken from the ground shows the Super Hornet beginning the maneuver and suddenly diving until it crashed.

Navy officials said weather did not appear to play a role in the crash and they found no evidence that mechanical problems were involved.

Lowe and Williams took off from the base at 11:55 a.m.; the fatal roll maneuver began just after 12:06 p.m. about 880 feet above the ground, according to the report.

Navy investigators wrote that Williams ejected between 328 and 330 feet and concluded that Lowe attempted to eject after his weapons officer did, but the process had barely begun when the plane hit the ground.

Autopsies showed both men died instantly. Neither had any known health problems, nor did they have alcohol or drugs in their systems that might have played roles in the crash, the Navy reported.

Lowe and Williams were members of the Lemoore-based Strike Fighter Squadron 122, a fleet replacement squadron that also flies at air shows and other public events.

The Navy reported that Lowe had a little more than 1,492 flight hours but only 117 of them in an F/A-18F Super Hornet. The April 6 flight was Lowe’s fourth flight and would have been the last for him to qualify to do demonstration flights.

“I am especially concerned that the mishap crew improperly performed the loaded-roll maneuver during three previous practice demonstration flights,” Myers said in the report.

Videos of those flights showed excessive angles of attack, but they weren’t shown to the aviators in post-flight debriefings. “A vital opportunity to prevent the accident was lost,” the report said.

Myers ordered loaded-roll maneuvers to be banned from the Navy’s demonstration flights. He said that the maneuver is best executed by experienced test pilots and requires levels of focus and skill not normally employed by tactical-demonstration pilots.