A deadly stew. (Grampaw Pettibone).

An F/A-18 Hornet pilot was the leader of a night, two-plane, close air support (GAS) flight using night vision goggles. The flight was under the control of a ground-based forward air controller (FAG) and was considered a precursor to the start of a structured training regimen.

During the briefing, the FAG offered the flight a preplanned GAS mission with a hard time on target, which was accepted. The flight launched, entered the target area and made two orbits to familiarize themselves with the range before proceeding to the initial point.

The leader was behind on his timeline to make the assigned time on target and was traveling at 520 knots indicated airspeed vice the prebriefed 300. He climbed through the 9,000-foot altitude restriction outside the target complex in an effort to attain the apex of his popup maneuver. Still behind the timeline, the flight reached an apex 1,200 feet below the required altitude and 120 knots too fast.

The target was a tank in the live impact area, denoted by the FAG using an infrared marking device. The leader was cleared but did not drop. He had not set proper altitude warning cues and passed the release altitude in a steep dive. He designated the target and initiated a normal pullout. Approximately three seconds later he was seen to execute a maximum performance G-limiter pull to attempt recovery. The aircraft cleared the target and was in a nose-up attitude and climbing when the Hornet struck a small ridge northeast of the tank. There was no attempt at ejection. The pilot and the aircraft were lost.

Grampaw Pettibone says:

Loss of situational awareness, target fixation, hurrying to catch up--that's an awful mix in anyone's stew. There are times when tryin' too hard spells disaster. The pilot didn't fly the briefed pattern, didn't set the proper altitude warning cues, and pressed on when an abort mighta been the better option. Also seems like the seniors in the chain accepted the CAS mission tasking too early in the training deployment. Terrible loss.