Following Standards

For John, BLUF:  This looks like the loss of a life and an expensive aircraft due to not maintaining high standards of performance.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Pilot error, leadership failures and faulty ejection seat led to fatal June F-16 crash at Shaw

From Air Force Times, by Reporter Stephen Losey, 10 Nocember 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

A cascading series of pilot errors, leadership failures and ejection seat malfunctions combined to cause the fatal crash of an F-16CM Fighting Falcon pilot on a nighttime training flight at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina June 30, according to an investigation released Monday.

The report found that 1st Lt. David Schmitz, who became frustrated after being unable to carry out his first-ever aerial refueling and had to cut his nighttime training flight short, accidentally severely damaged his landing gear during a landing attempt, which was the primary cause of the crash, according to the report, dated Oct. 16.

But the report said that the supervisor of flying substantially contributed to Schmitz’s death by opting not to call a Lockheed Martin hotline that could have advised on a safer course of action, and instead having him try to conduct a cable landing instead of a controlled ejection, the report said.

A series of ejection seat malfunctions kept Schmitz’s parachute from deploying, also contributing to his death, the report said.

And the report criticized Schmitz’s leaders for having him try for his first-ever aerial refueling at night, disregarding Air Force policies that require pilots to first get used to such maneuvers in the daytime.

I am not sure I see a night refueling being inherently more tricky than a day refueling, but most would prefer a daylight refueling, so the Flight Leader (in this case two Instructor Pilots in the flight) can observe and, if need be, provide guidance at the time or discuss it later, in the flight debriefing.

A bothched landing, resulting in damage to the landing gear is a big deal.  While I might be happy to land a T-33 in some field, gear up, not the F-16 or the F-4.  I would worry about the F-16 being crushed like an empty sode can if it leaves the runway.  Ejection seems like a reasonable solution.

However, this time a series of errors resulted in the ejection seat being put into a corner of its success envelope and the odds turned bad.  A bad maintenance parts delivery system didn't help.

Accidents are usually not the result of one thing going wrong.  Rather, they are a chain of events not going right.  If just one of those things is found and corrected the accident might be avoided.  Driving on a wet surface, withg bald tires, which are under-inflated.  Change one thing and you can, perhaps, avoid a hydroplaning accident.

Yes, this points to a failure of leadership at several levels, including the Flight Lead, the Squadron Operations Officer, the Wing Supervisor of Flying and odds and ends of other people.  In my mind leadership is not just a top to bottom thing, but also a bottom up thing,  All are responsible for speaking up if they see something wrong,  As someone commented on line this morning, in a discussion of the problem at West Point with their large Honor Code violation,

“If you walk by something that does not meet the standard, and do not correct it, that becomes the new standard.”

Standards need to be high.  Leadership is about helping folks meet those standards.  It can be as simple as walking down Merrimak Street and picking up a piece of trash and putting in a trash barrel (it is my City after all) to as hard and complicated as erasing vestiges of racism in our public schools.

Regards  —  Cliff