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CNN
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Inadequate training, poor leadership and lack of pilot proficiency are to blame fatal collision Between United States Marine Corps fighter jets and tanker aircraft from Japan, the Marines said this week.
December 6 accident six aviators killed And a plane worth about $150 million at the bottom of the Pacific.
As a result of the investigation, four officers of Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 based in Iwakuni, Japan were relieved of their duties, according to a statement from the Marine Corps.
The corps should be more vigilant to ensure that safety procedures are followed and risks are assessed, the statement said.
“We should all learn from these failures and not repeat them,” said III Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lieutenant General H. Stacy Clardi said, the units involved were involved.
The accident occurred when two maritime F/A-18D fighter jets and a KC-130J tanker aircraft were performing aerial refueling over the Pacific Ocean in the early hours of 6 December.
A KC-130J Hercules tanker leads an AV-8B Harrier (top) and two F/A-18 Hornets during a 2017 demonstration in California.
According to a Marine Corps statement, after both fighters took fuel from the tanker aircraft, the second aircraft that completed the procedure attempted to move away from the tanker using “a non-standard maneuver for air-to-air refueling”. tried.
The maneuver was approved by mission controllers, it said.
“The pilot of the second F/A-18D did not have experience in night-time air-to-air refueling operations,” the statement continued. “Investigations indicate that the pilot of the accident lost situational awareness, inadvertently crossed from left to right on top of the KC-130J, and collided with the rear of the tanker.”
Both planes fell in the Pacific Ocean.
All five sailors aboard the tanker, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Herrmann, Major James Brophy, Staff Sgt. Maximo Floors, Cpl. Daniel Baker, and Cpl. William Ross, was killed.
The pilot of the F/A-18, Captain Jahmar Resilard, was rescued after the crash, but later died of his injuries. The weapons officer aboard Resilard’s jet was the sole survivor of the accident.
“The loss of these marines is still felt within their squadrons, their communities and the Marine Corps,” the statement said.
While the statement said that the four officers were relieved of their duties, it noted that the review of the accident is ongoing and further disciplinary action is possible.
US forces Japan said in December that after the crash, US, Japanese and Australian forces conducted more than 800 hours of air and sea search operations, covering more than 35,000 square miles of ocean, in an effort to find survivors.
In a rescue operation from May 27 to June 7 this year, the cockpit voice recorder along with the human remains and the KC-130 tanker’s flight data recorder were recovered from the sea floor, the Corps said.
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