5th T-38 crash in 12 months today

At approximately 7:30pm a T-38C crashed on or near Laughlin AFB in Texas. It makes the fifth T-38 to crash in the last year, with at least three being from bases in Texas. Very little information has been released so far, including nothing about the crew or how many were on board.

www.cbsnews.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58
yes I recall you have mentioned a few incidents before with this same aircraft. You said it is a training aircraft right? Is it modeled for folks to get a better grasp of another type of aircraft? I suspect sabotage honestly I know you military types never ever want to even think it possible, but this is the new age of quantum computing, AI, and remote hacking.

I strongly believe sabotage is responsible not only for these crashes, but the various failed launches or outright destruction of several satellite missions. Our rivals have not only caught up technologically, they are coming at us with a vengeance.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

The T-38s flying are 50+ years old. Not the design, the actual aircraft themselves. Even though they've been rebuilt under various PACER programs, eventually they just wear out. One aircraft that crashed had suffered 7 sheared shafts in one gearbox in less than 2 years, and five failures of other natures in the other in roughly the same timeframe. That's not sabotage, that's poor directives from higher for dealing with issues.

Training aircraft have always had higher accident rates than other aircraft. It's the nature of the beast. Instructors can frequently get out of situations students get into, but when there's no instructor, or the aircraft just gives out, it's a lot harder to save the aircraft.

Two pilots were on board. One was killed, one was taken to an area hospital but his condition was not disclosed.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Well then they are at least as old as most of our B-52's right? The big bertha's don't seem to be having this problem, but then again I doubt they really get much flight anymore. Most of our global bombing runs are done with drones, F-15's through F-22's and ship launched cruise missiles. So I guess, perhaps these planes are just super old but not getting the proper maintenance attention as our big gals?

I am sure the 52's are still flying for training purposes as well right? When was the last time one was even used for a bombing run? Had to be Iraq invasion right? Or was it the MOAB in Afghanistan?

a reply to: worldstarcountry

The B-52 has been flying almost constantly including combat. They were replaced a few months ago by B-1s in the UAE as part of the normal combat rotation. It's a huge difference on airframe life when you're flying straight and level between two points, and taking a jet out and throwing it around pulling 6+Gs. The T-38s are trainers, and some are used as adversary aircraft for combat training. Both can pull high Gs depending on the flight profile for that mission. That's a lot more strain on the airframe than the B-52 sees.

The T-38s are getting proper maintenance, for the most part, but they're just old and being pushed hard.

a reply to: Zaphod58
In your professional opinion then, do you believe or feel with instinct that it is time to develop new trainer aircraft? I honestly more ignorant on these things than I would like to be, but based on the reports and incidents, it seems it is time for a new trainer in this regard.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

They've already selected the replacement. It'll be 10 years before we see them in any kind of numbers, and 15 before they're fully operational.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I am going through some stuff and did not got to link. This is my news source. Question I have is , how many have died in these crashes in this time frame ? Also because of a lack of statistical ability , for the next few flights what are the stats for chances of crashing ?
You have to give it to the fly boys for having nads.

a reply to: savagediver

Three or four. One was a solo flight that didn't get out, one tandem crew didn't complete the final two steps of the checklist, so one of the pilots didn't aim his seat. They stayed with it to make sure it would miss a neighborhood and he didn't have time to get out when his seat didn't go.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Couldn't they use something else for training in the meantime?
The boneyard is full of airframes.
F 16s maybe.

a reply to: Bluntone22

The T-38 is the lead in trainer for those platforms. You don't want to just throw a pilot straight into something that complex when they have very little actual flight experience.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So just another example of the air force brass not looking to the future.
We have pretty new fighters for pilots but we cant train the pilots.

a reply to: Bluntone22

More like doing what they can with what they had. Previous leadership prioritized the F-22 and F-35 over everything else. Between the PACER program and guys breaking their backs, the T-38 fleet was in good shape. They didn't lose a single aircraft between 2014 and last year, and crashes before then were rare.

Then we had Sequestration and the gutting of the maintenance budget, and the urging of the highest time maintenance people to take early retirement or just retirement, and a lot of the knowledge base was lost. Between that and prioritizing the F-35 over everything, the T-38s, like everything else, began to slip. And we are where we are now.

seems to be a lot of US military aircraft crashing lately. just on Monday an F-18 crashed in the Philippine sea. about 16 up to September in 2018, 4 in October, and now 2 this week alone. so almost 2 US military aircraft crashes a month, that seems rather a lot.

a reply to: generik

It's all tied to maintenance. Gut the budget and get rid of your most experienced personnel, and you get more maintenance failures. That means fewer pilot hours a month; which leads to more pilot error accidents.

Reading things it looks like they have problems with gearbox shafts shearing..

a reply to: Blackfinger

The crash last November lost both gearboxes, one had seven sheared shafts in two years. The one at Vance lost power in both engines. They haven't said anything about the two in Texas before this one, but I wouldn't be surprised to see engine/ gearbox failures there too.

The pilot killed was Capt. John Graziano. He was an instructor for the 87th Flying Training Squadron at Laughlin. The second pilot was Capt. Mark Palyok, who was treated at a local hospital and released.

Laughlin suspended T-38 flights yesterday and today due to the accident.