Dogfighting disaster.

Shortly before an ACM brief was scheduled to begin, three squadrons participating in an exercise modified their flight schedules in order to combine two sequential range events into one. The new mission had two F-5s and three F/A-18Ds in the Red Air role against four F-16s. The mission commander, who was the WSO in the lead Hornet, led the Red Air brief. Although the mission commander reviewed a tactical scenario that had the aircraft separating into three elements, he failed to brief a thorough deconfliction plan. The Dash-3 F/A-18 pilot had flown an instrument hop that morning that he believed satisfied his ACM currency requirement; however, that was only his first flight in the last 30 days, which was good for the "one flight in six days" requirement but five shy of the "six flights in 30 days" requirement.

During the flight, the three Hornets executed the separation maneuver as briefed. The Dash-3 F/A-18 blew through the merge with the Blue Air F-16s without radar contact or a tally, but several seconds later turned back into the fight based on a GCI call. Meanwhile, the other two Hornets had good radar pictures and began to descend.

Dash-3 followed the GCI information to another merge, and this time the pilot got a tally on the lead Blue Air F-16 above and to the right. He started an aggressive climbing turn that happened to be directly into the sun. At the same time, the lead Hornet pilot reefed his fighter into a descending left-hand turn to prosecute an attack on the lead F-16. Moving in for a rear quarter missile shot, he then reversed his turn into the flight path of Dash-3, who he'd been belly-up to during the last half of the attack on the F-16. The starboard wingtip of the lead Hornet sliced through Dash-3's canopy, instantly killing both aircrew. The jet eventually impacted the desert at more than 500 knots, while the lead Hornet managed to recover safely at the detachment air base.

Grampaw Pettibone says:

Let's a-check the recipe here: Blend one last minute change to the flight schedule with one less-than-stellar brief. Mix in at least one non-current pilot. Add nine jets and stir into a fur ball. Oh, and throw in a pinch of bright sun. Yep, that's mid-air stew, all right.

I've jawboned on it before and I'll do it agin' until brownshoes start learnin' from those what made the same mistakes before 'em. Training rules--including currency requirements--ain't optional. And any mission that includes planes sharing pieces of sky has got to include altitude block assignments and conditions for leaving those blocks.

Gramps knows there are few things as hoot-makin' as a many-v-many, but for all of their gouge turnin' and burnin' potential, few training missions can rival 'em in their ability to bite you when you're not looking (literally). In this case, banking on the "big sky, little jet" theory once again proved itself an unwise investment.