re: Story behind a famous Navy flyby

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mous Navy flyby
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What happened in '93? Was that when the Tomcat pilot was hotdogging for his parents on takeoff out of Nashville and ended up killing some people?


yep
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I googled the incident after I posted. That happened in Jan., '96. The pilot's parents were from Chattanooga, so they came to see him when he flew into Nashville on a training flight from San Diego. He requested, and was approved for, a full military power/maximum thrust takeoff. Basically, full burner when the wheels come off the deck. Apparently, the "rule" is not to exceed 50 degrees nose up. This guy went near vertical into a 2,300' cloud deck. He loses situational awareness and is still on full burner when he comes back out of the bottom of the cloud deck. Too late for he or his RIO to eject, and they fly right into a house with 16,000 lbs of fuel onboard.

He had already crashed a Tomcat off of Hawaii, but got a pass because, in the spirit of Naval Aviation, he was "flying aggressively".