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B52
B52 crash
Some of you may remember it when it happened. Hot dog pilot decided to pull this stunt after his crew complained several times about his flying habits. >>
The weirdest aspect of this is the historical context. Just three days before the crash, Airman First Class Dean Mellberg, who had just been discharged from the Air Force for personality disorders, stormed into the Fairchild AFB hospital with an AK-47 and shot 23 people, killing five. The Wing Commander decided not to cancel the air show scheduled for the following weekend in the interest of showing that the base would not permit a lone wacko to deter them from business as usual.
The B-52 went down in an airshow rehearsal, killing, as I recall, five O-5s and O-6s, including the Vice Wing Commander (who was there to keep an eye on the pilot, Lt Col Arthur Holland, who had a history of dangerous hot-dog flying). I believe the Wing Commander was court-martialed for permitting Lt Col Holland to continue to fly after a number of near-crashes caused by reckless flying. An old boss of mine was the Staff Judge Advocate at Fairchild at the time; that had to be a hell of a week . . .