Report: Crew error led to F-15E crash

[unhappycamper]

Report: Crew error led to F-15E crash
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Dec 6, 2009 8:32:35 EST

High above Afghanistan, in the dark, Capt. Mark R. McDowell pointed the nose of his F-15E Strike Eagle at a practice target on the ground. He thought the dry lake bed was 4,800 feet above sea level. It was 10,200 feet high.

The F-15E went into a 31-degree dive going 515 mph. The jet’s ground collision alarm snapped on, lighting up display screens with arrows pointing up and a computer voice warning four times to “pull up.”

McDowell and Capt. Thomas J. Gramith, his weapons systems officer, didn’t react. Three seconds after the alarm came on, the jet crashed, killing both airmen. They didn’t try to eject.

The Air Combat Command accident investigation board is attributing the July 18 crash, the first fighter-jet crash in Afghanistan since the war started, to aircrew mistakes.

“It was a tragic, human error,” Brig. Gen. Harry D. Polumbo, the lead investigator, told reporters in a conference call.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/12/airforce_f15e_crash_120609w/

[TexasProgresive]

1. Always trust your instruments

Since it was me that use to maintain them - well I don't know but that was the mantra drilled into pilots 35 years ago. I'm sorry these guys didn't pull up. I agree with the assessment - pilot error.