Tribute To Fallen Blue Angel

Navy F-18 Hornet Plunges Near Subdivision; Pilot Honored Sunday

(CBS/AP)  A Navy Blue Angel jet crashed during an air show Saturday, plunging into a neighborhood of small homes and trailers and killing the pilot.

Late Sunday the pilot was identified as Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis. A Navy statement said the pilot had been on the team for two years, and it was his first as a demonstration pilot.

In a somber salute, a team of six jets flew in traditional "Missing Man" formation at the start of the air show Sunday, reports CBS News correspondent Joie Chen. Then one jet peeled off to honor the FA 18 Hornet and its pilot, lost when the jet plummeted into a neighborhood near the air base.

Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation during the show at the Marine Corps Air Station at about 4 p.m. and one dropped below the trees and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke.

Buzz Henry, who was in the front yard raking when the jets passed overhead, told CBS News he saw one of the planes burst into flames while still in the sky, spitting a strip of fire across the sky as it headed down into the trees. Henry says he found the pilot’s body. He added that the parachute had not been released and that it appeared that the pilot did not attempt to eject himself from the plane.

Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit “plenty of houses and mobile homes.”

“It was just a big fireball coming at me,” said Voegeli, 37. “It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them.”

Witnesses said metal and plastic wreckage — some of it on fire — hit homes in the neighborhood, located about 35 miles northwest of Hilton Head Island. William Winn, the county emergency management director, said several homes were damaged. Eight people on the ground were injured.

During their shows, the Blue Angels come within inches of each other, and yesterday, the accident happened as the team was doing a maneuver in which all six jets come together in a triangle formation, adds Chen.

The crash took place in the final minutes of the air show, said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Walley, a Blue Angel pilot.

“Our squadron and the entire U.S. Navy are grieving the loss of a great American, a great Naval officer and a great friend,” Walley said.

Kasper said all possible causes of the crash are under investigation, and it could take at least three weeks for an official cause to be released.

John Sauls, who lives near the crash site, said the planes were banking back and forth before one disappeared, and a plume of smoke shot up.

“It's one of those surreal moments when you go, 'No, I didn't just see what I saw,”' Sauls said.

In the last 20 years more than 150 spectators have been killed in Airshow crashes involving military demonstration teams, reports CBS News' Russ Mitchell.

The deadliest was in the Ukraine, when a Russian fighter jet crashed into crowd, killing 84. In 1988 a mid-air collision of Italy's Air Force team killed 72 people at a U.S. base in Germany.

But over the last 50 years no spectators have been killed at air shows here in the United States, adds Mitchell.

The Blue Angels fly F/A-18 Hornets at high speeds in close formations, and their pilots are considered the Navy's elite. They don't wear the traditional G-suits that most jet pilots use to avoid blacking out during maneuvers. The suits inflate around the lower body to keep blood in the brain, but which could cause a pilot to bump the control stick — a potentially deadly move when flying inches from other planes.

Instead, Blue Angels manage G-forces by tensing their abdominal muscles.

The last Blue Angel crash that killed a pilot took place in 1999, when a pilot and crewmate were killed while practicing for air shows with the five other Blue Angels jets at a base in Georgia.

Saturday's show was at the beginning of the team's flight season, and more than 100,000 people were expected to attend. The elite team, which is based at Pensacola Naval Air Station, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

The 2007 team has a new flight leader and two new pilots; Blue Angel pilots traditionally serve two-year rotations.

Kasper said the team would return to Florida on Sunday afternoon. “We will regroup,” he said.

[jbaker314]

"That's what I thought when Bush, himself, spoke at the VATech memorial to remind us how much of a tragedy he found the situation to be.

VATech was enough of a tragedy without Bush trying to score points.

Noteworthily enough, Bush does NOT appear at many of the 3,000 or so military funerals, so far, in a totally bogus war he began."

Posted by alphaa10 at 11:23 PM : Apr 22, 2007

What you fail (or choose not) to note is that the President was careful to express his sympathies to the families of the victims and to the students and faculty of VA Tech, and to avoid any comments advocating or opposing a change in existing statutes which could be considered relevant to the shooting.

The same position has been taken by most politicians of both major parties. I commend both for their restraint.

It is a shame that you seem to be unable to demonstrate the same degree of restraint and civility.

Now is NOT the time for recriminations. It is a time to demonstrate our sympathy and support to those who truly need it.

Let me note that our sympathy should also extend to the family of the young man who killed all of these people.

I don't think that any of us can do more than to imagine the heartbreak and sorrow that they must be feeling.

John P Baker

[down-ndirty]

I think it is scary.
http://www.viewzone.com/haarp1
1.html
Posted by barbaraf4 at 10:17 PM : Apr 22, 2007

Uh-Huh. Search on "Dan Eden" or go to
http://www.viewzone.com/vz.message.html

You will realize that the story was written while Dan Eden was in a drunken stupor enhanced with drugs. And it's full of holes.

Bernard Eastlund is real and his patents are real, but do you really believe gas can be converted to energy in Alaska and "beamed" to your home in Michigan, or wherever it is?

Go to Wikipedia and search on HAARP. And don't be scared. HAARP is no more dangerous than flying from San Diego to Dallas-Fort Worth, which I do every month as an aero-space engineer.

Beam me up, Scotty!

And God bless the Blue Angels...

[cgene1]

Face the facts alphaa10 you are a jerk, pure and simple..

[alphaa10-2009]

John P Baker said, "Only the lowest of the low try to use a tragic accident to make a political statement."
---
That's what I thought when Bush, himself, spoke at the VATech memorial to remind us how much of a tragedy he found the situation to be.

VATech was enough of a tragedy without Bush trying to score points.

Noteworthily enough, Bush does NOT appear at many of the 3,000 or so military funerals, so far, in a totally bogus war he began.


if not as a politician and would-be political leader, making a political statement about

[cgene1]

what has the bird flu and G bush to do with this tragedy other than provide a chance to show how ignorent some people are....

God bless this young man and his family and give them strenth to see this through. I have see the Blue Angels many times and never have I been disapointed with their show it is absolutly breath takeing.I salute you Kevin and all the Blue Angels... God Bless you all..

[alphaa10-2009]

Hmmm8 said, "I just don't believe people should risk their lives to make other people go ooh and ahh. ... If you do extreme sports, climb the highest mountains, do stunt flying, etc take a minute and ask the children who've lost their parents to such adventures if they thought what Dad or Mom did was really worth it."
---
dlpracer replied, "If it wasn't for people taking chances, YOU wouldn't be typing on the very computer you posted your stupid comment on..."
---

You missed the point hmmm8 made-- Hmmm8 nowhere argues against exploration and innovation. But hmmm8 does argue that risk demands on honest assessment of whether this trip is truly necessary.

For example, some ride motorcycles without helmets. Thrilling, maybe, but a high and unnecessary risk of brain damage, at the very least.

Likewise, some idiots invade other countries for sport and profit, and thousands of other Americans pay the price. That is where the foolishness enters and where lack of understanding and responsibility is glaringly obvious.

Adding excitement to life (sport) is fine, provided you weigh the consequences of what you do on others. This is the point hmmm8 made. Choosing between death and glory or a pedestrian life has nothing to do with it.

[barbaraf4]

"Look it up and learn something."

Posted by down-ndirty at 09:23 PM : Apr 22, 2007

I think it is scary.

http://www.viewzone.com/haarp11.html

[chuck11061]

The Blue Angels provide a valuable service to all.I salute them always, and as a retired member of the Navy claimed them as my own. We always cry when we lose a shipmate, and to the Davis family I give my deepest condolences.

[mikealford3]

Think you down n dirty for the explanation.

[down-ndirty]

"Have either of you heard about the HAARP Project in the Artic Circle? Scary stuff." Posted by barbaraf4 at 06:24 PM : Apr 22, 2007

The above statement is proof that people fear that which they are not familiar with.

Actually it's not inside the Arctic Circle, and it's not scary. Certainly not as scary as flying 360 MPH at tree-top level.

Also, HAARP is jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and the University of Alaska. The purpose is to study the ionospheric dynamics that alter the performance of communication and surveillance systems.

The intensity of HAARP's signal is tens of thousands of times less than the sun's natural electromagnetic radiation on earth, and hundreds of times less than the normal random variations in intensity of the sun's natural UV energy that creates the ionoshpere.

Look it up and learn something.

[jbaker314]

"They should replace the pilot with Dubbya, he has all that TANG training, he can fly a barstool better than most." Posted by jon_mccain at 05:05 PM : Apr 22, 2007

Only the lowest of the low try to use a tragic accident to make a political statement.

John P Baker

[down-ndirty]

"US military air shows have always had a policy of flying parallel to the crowd and not over the crowd so that in the event of an accident the aircraft will not plow into the crowd, such as happened in Europe some few years back resulting in a massive loss of life." Posted by jbaker314 at 01:26 PM : Apr 22, 2007

Actually it's the law, since 1961 when the FAA prohibited aerobatic maneuvers that point the nose of the aircraft toward the crowd.

The reason pilots don't create a sonic boom is because the FAA also banned supersonic flight over the continental U.S.

[mikealford3]

I have not heard of that barbara.

I like, all of you, appreciate the sacrafice that the men and women of our military make for all of us. My earlier comment was not meant as a bash of the Navy pilots or sailors. I am distrubed by the leadership of the Navy and their lack of willingness to find an alternative to poisoning millions of waterfowl and potentially creating a heath hazard in N.C.

didntinhale, have you ever heard of the bird flu? Our nation sprang to concern with the idea that birds brought from Asia could potentially come to America bringing with them diasease. If birds from Asia can bring about a health crisis is it at all reasonable to think that by poisoning millions of birds that are already here will be less harmful?

[lvchk2]

My heart goes out to Kevin Davis, his family, and the rest of the Blue Angels. I had the privilege of working with the Blue Angels last month and was supposed to attend the Corpus Christy show. But unfortunately I had circumstances that were beyond my control. I now wish that I would've been able to.
I've developed friendship with these guys. I was and am still looking forward to working with them again, however it saddens me that I will not be able to see Kevin. Even though it is a tragedy as far as what happened, he was doing what he loved.

[lvchk2]

My heart goes out to Kevin Davis, his family, and the rest of the Blue Angels. I had the privilege of working with the Blue Angels last month and was supposed to attend the Corpus Christy show. But unfortunately I had circumstances that were beyond my control. I now wish that I would've been able to.
I've developed friendship with these guys. I was and am still looking forward to working with them again, however it saddens me that I will not be able to see Kevin. Even though it is a tragedy as far as what happened, he was doing what he loved.

[michellem99-2009]

The Blue Angels are apart of SEAFAIR in Seattle. I truly love their show that is aired on TV as it is a means that we see what these planes and their crews can do. I don't see it as stunt flying at all. They are totally cool. Every year I look forward to THE BLUE ANGELS in Seattle. It is our Navy thru these shows that inspire others to join the service. It is their love of flight.I always thanks a member of the armed forces when I meet him/her and our vets. My deepest heart felt prayers are with them.

[thomderr]

I stood and saluted the moment I learn of the pilots death.

My prayers go out to his family and friends...And his team.

[dlpracer]

I just don't believe people should risk their lives to make other people go ooh and ahh. ...If you do extreme sports, climb the highest mountains, do stunt flying, etc take a minute and ask the children who've lost their parents to such adventures if they thought what Dad or Mom did was really worth it.
Posted by hmmm8 at 11:49 AM : Apr 22, 2007

-----------

If it wasn't for people taking chances, YOU wouldn't be typing on the very computer you posted your stupid comment on.

Thanks God there are people that take risks and chances beyond the dismal life hmmm8 leads. It is those risk-takers that give the rest of us the life-style we have.

To hmmm8, getting out of bed is a risk.

Good luck with that life, letting someone else risk their existance to protect (police and fire) your scared soul.

Good luck.

[barbaraf4]

"but the navy doesn't care. They are going to poison birds like Tundra Swans and snow geese that will be returning to the arctic circle if they don't die."

Posted by mikealford3

"THANK GOD WE HAVE A NAVY THAT CARES MORE ABOUT PROTECTING OUR NATION THAN IT DOES ABOUT SNOW GEESE AND TUNDRA SWANS!!!!"

Posted by didntinhale at 04:53 PM : Apr 22, 2007

Have either of you heard about the HAARP Project in the Artic Circle? Scary stuff.

[j_flood]

May the pilot rest in peace. May those injured recover soon.