Thunderbirds jet flips on landing
Pilot, passenger in good condition following accident
DAYTON, Ohio — The pilot of an F-16D Fighting Falcon from the Thunderbirds demonstration team based at Nellis Air Force Base and his passenger are in good condition after the jet flipped Friday after landing at the conclusion of a practice flight for an Ohio air show.
Thunderbirds Commander-leader Lt. Col. Jason Heard said the pilot, Capt. Erik Gonsalves of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and passenger Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Cordova of Littleton, Colorado, were extracted from the wreckage after at least 1 1/2 hours and receiving care for injuries that were not life-threatening at a local hospital.
“We’re very thankful they are in good condition,” Heard said during a press conference after the accident that occurred at 12:20 p.m. local time at Dayton International Airport during a single-ship “familiarization flight.”
He said Cordova, an aircraft maintainer, had “no visible injuries” but Gonsalves, the team’s narrator, “had some lacerations as well as some injuries to his leg but he is in stable to good condition.”
The F-16D model is a two-seater and is used by the team to take an observer on familiarization flights.
Heard said weather conditions were within normal parameters for the flight.
Gonsalves, the team’s advance pilot, took off with Cordova in the back seat at 10:30 a.m., Heard said, then flew to some training airspace “where he was able to show the capabilities to his crew member for that familiarization flight.”
Heard said the accident happened after landing, but it will take a safety investigation board to collect the facts before a cause can be determined.
Gonsalves has logged more than 1,600 flight hours as an Air Force pilot. He graduated from the U.S.
Air Force Academy in 2008. He has more than 500 hours of combat flights in the A-10C.
The team’s performance at this weekend’s air show was canceled for Saturday, but the team will decide whether or not to perform Sunday.
Penelope Reed of the Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office in Dayton says a report was received at 12:31 p.m. saying a jet ran off the end of a runway and was on its top. She says Wright-patterson Air Force Base dispatched a crash team and heavy rescue crew.
The last accident of a Thunderbirds jet occurred June 2, 2016, in Colorado following a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony.
The pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, suffered a minor injury after he ejected from the F-16CJ Fighting Falcon jet near Colorado Springs, Colorado, following the team’s six-jet flyover at the academy’s graduation attended by President Barack Obama.
Investigators determined that a sticky throttle trigger caused him to inadvertently cut off the engine’s power. Turner managed to put the $29 million jet on course to crashland in an unoccupied field.
It was destroyed on impact even though it came to a rest upright and appeared to be mostly intact.
Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Follow @Keithrogers2 on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.