# Navy instructor pilots refusing to fly over safety concerns; Pence's son affected



## Ooh-Rah (Apr 4, 2017)

Be interested to see where this story goes....especially with Lt. Pence as part of the story...

Navy instructor pilots refusing to fly over safety concerns; Pence's son affected

_More than 100 U.S. Navy instructor pilots are refusing to fly in protest of what they say is the refusal of top brass to adequately address an urgent problem with training jets’ oxygen system, multiple instructor pilots tell Fox News.   

The boycott started late last week and has effectively grounded hundreds of training flights.

“The pilots don’t feel safe flying this aircraft,” one instructor pilot told Fox News.   

Among the hundreds of student pilots affected is Marine 1st Lt. Michael Pence, son of Vice President Pence – a factor that could put added pressure on the Pentagon to resolve the dispute. _


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## Gunz (Apr 4, 2017)

10 episodes just last month in the T-45s. I don't blame them...if the episodes mentioned in the story are correct a death is just waiting to happen.


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## Il Duce (Apr 4, 2017)

Holy cow, if some USAF doesn't get relieved over this I will be very surprised.  USAF has had a bad couple years of leadership headlines - mismanaging the nuclear bomber force, harassment/assault/proselytizing at the academy, and now hundreds of instructor pilots going on strike.  Maybe the USN will feel a little better about the relieved commanders thread.


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## TLDR20 (Apr 4, 2017)

Il Duce said:


> Holy cow, if some USAF doesn't get relieved over this I will be very surprised.  USAF has had a bad couple years of leadership headlines - mismanaging the nuclear bomber force, harassment/assault/proselytizing at the academy, and now hundreds of instructor pilots going on strike.  Maybe the USN will feel a little better about the relieved commanders thread.



These are Navy pilots. Navy airplanes, Navy command.


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## AWP (Apr 4, 2017)

Il Duce said:


> Holy cow, if some USAF doesn't get relieved over this I will be very surprised.  USAF has had a bad couple years of leadership headlines - mismanaging the nuclear bomber force, harassment/assault/proselytizing at the academy, and now hundreds of instructor pilots going on strike.  Maybe the USN will feel a little better about the relieved commanders thread.



That's some solid Intel work....


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## Ooh-Rah (Apr 4, 2017)

LOL


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## Il Duce (Apr 4, 2017)

TLDR20 said:


> These are Navy pilots. Navy airplanes, Navy command.





AWP said:


> That's some solid Intel work....



Fake news!  The real story is the leakers who let this story out!  Once again the failing shadowspear trying to...   Yeah, my bad I guess reading is fundamental.


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## Marauder06 (Apr 5, 2017)

I hope those responsible are unmasked soon.  /crossthread


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## AWP (Apr 5, 2017)

Il Duce said:


> Yeah, my bad I guess reading is fundamental.



You'll make a great battalion (and higher) commander. Promote immediately.


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## Gunz (Apr 5, 2017)

Il Duce said:


> Yeah, my bad I guess reading is fundamental.



The Marines are looking for a few good men.


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## DA SWO (Apr 5, 2017)

Interesting as the last plane was delivered in 2009.

*"The Navy is now looking at grounding the entire fleet of T-45s for the next few days, according to multiple pilots."

“Histotoxic hypoxia” is the medical term associated with the disorientating disorder which can put pilots’ lives at risk, as well as those of civilians on the ground below. Two instructor pilots say the training jets are now averaging three incidents a week, as the Navy struggles to get to the bottom of the contamination."*

I  wonder what has worn out, or wasn't replaced as a cost cutting measure?

 


*
*


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## Ooh-Rah (Apr 5, 2017)

DA SWO said:


> "The Navy is now looking at grounding the entire fleet of T-45s for the next few days, according to multiple pilots."



...and they did...

Navy grounds all T-45 training jets after instructors refuse to fly


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## Dame (Apr 5, 2017)

They ought to let those guys at Keesler have a go at it.
Biloxi base solves mystery illness on C-130s




ETA: Yes, I know it's an AFB.


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## Marauder06 (Apr 5, 2017)

DA SWO said:


> Interesting as the last plane was delivered in 2009.
> 
> *"The Navy is now looking at grounding the entire fleet of T-45s for the next few days, according to multiple pilots."
> 
> ...



Three a WEEK damn that seems like a lot to me.  I would think this grounding would have occurred sooner.


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## DA SWO (Apr 5, 2017)

Marauder06 said:


> Three a WEEK damn that seems like a lot to me.  I would think this grounding would have occurred sooner.


Should have, no different than the F-22 issues, just shows how serious management is when it comes to safety.


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## AWP (Apr 5, 2017)

Cynically I have to wonder if keeping them in the air is a political/ perception issue related to the much discussed pilot shortage in the USAF coupled with the maintenance availability on the Navy/ USMC side of the house?

Regardless, and blame it in sequestration or whatever, our nation's fast attack communities are hurting. On the outside looking in it appears our nation's leadership (civ and mil) doesn't give a damn.


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## Gunz (Apr 6, 2017)

DA SWO said:


> Should have, no different than the F-22 issues, just shows how serious management is when it comes to safety.




Everybody covers their ass. The top guy in the Marine V22 program was falsifying maintenance reports when the Ospreys were having their teething mishaps, (some of them fatal). Bureaucracy at work.


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## Ooh-Rah (Apr 10, 2017)

<Update>

Things have gone from bad to worse at the Navy's flight school

_The head of naval aviation has extended a three-day grounding of all the Navy's T-45 training jets indefinitely after a  group of instructor pilots refused to fly the aircraft. 

After a visit from Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker Friday to the Navy's flight training school in Meridian, Mississippi, the Navy put out a press release announcing that the three-day pause in T-45 flights has been extended while Navy engineers try and figure out what's causing a spike in dangerous physical symptoms in pilots brought on by a drop in oxygen in the cockpit. _


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## TLDR20 (Apr 10, 2017)

Why don't they adjust the training to fly below 12,500 feet? I know some stuff must take place higher, but I think an O2 issue could be avoided by the addition of a lower ceiling. Training could continue while the problem is fixed.


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## Red Flag 1 (Apr 10, 2017)

H


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