Word: planes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Defenders of the plane argue that's exactly what T-3 training is meant to accomplish. "We don't want to kill people at the Air Force Academy, obviously," McPeak says. "But we drove [Commerce Secretary] Ron Brown and a planeload of VIPs into the hills of Yugoslavia because of pilot error." "We don't want to kill a planeload of people because we haven't properly identified the people who can do this job." Other Air Force officers point out that the plane has flown without an accident at an Air Force base at Hondo, Texas, where the instructors...
Many T-3 pilots at both Hondo and Colorado Springs believe the plane flies much better in the lower, and heavier, Texas air than in the thin air above Colorado's mile-high plains. Some Air Force safety experts have recommended that the entire T-3 operation be based at Hondo. "The flight school shouldn't be in the mountains," says one such expert. "But Annapolis has boats and West Point has cannon, and so saying you're not going to have planes at the Air Force Academy doesn't sound right...
Even so, after the third crash, the pilots began to wonder just what they were flying. That accident produced the most devastating account of the T-3's mechanical weaknesses. The official investigation disclosed that after the plane was delivered to the Air Force, manufacturer Slingsby Aviation Ltd. recommended that 119 fixes be made to improve safety. That probe and other reports showed that the Air Force had made numerous engine changes, revised its starting procedure and modified the airplane's fuel lines and cowling, but that the motor had continued to shut down for unknown reasons. The brakes suffer...
...Force insists they were. A week after the third fatal crash in 28 months, the planes were ordered back into the air. The Air Force finally grounded the T-3s last July 25 after an engine once again stopped in midair and neither the cadet nor the instructor could restart it. Luckily, the plane was over the academy runway and landed safely. "We want an effective flight-screening program, but a safe one," says General Lloyd Newton, head of the service's Air Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Texas, who ordered the grounding. "We've certainly bumped into...
...first thing you notice when your plane suddenly begins to drop is that you're becoming weightless. For those who like roller coasters, the sensation may not be too bad. Quickly, however, zero-G can become negative-G, meaning anything not fastened or seat-belted down will slam into the ceiling. Food trays get tossed, cutlery gets flung, carry-ons fly up as tray tables bang down. After a few seconds the plane stabilizes, and anything--or anyone--stuck to the ceiling crashes to the floor. Another case of midair turbulence is quickly over...