B 52 Fairchild Col Horton Review

40 minutes presentation by Col Horton, USAF, about the B52 crash at Fairchild, AFB. He discusses responsibility in leadership and safety and the lack of action taken by many members in the USAF that allowed the crash to happen. Old VHS video but excellent lessons still valid today.

[@terrancewyckoff]

The maneuvers Holland routinely made were INSANE! I’d have been terrified to fly with him as well.

[@cgirl111]

Did one single person in the chain of command lose their pension? I'm guessing not. They are as guilty of murder as the pilot.

[@stevenjames4222]

Of course not. Air Force officers cover each other’s asses. If the crash was down to maintenance personnel, they’d send him to Leavenworth, take $$, and take his first born child.

[@kittygonzalez2827]

I’m glad to see that finally someone is out there speaking about all of this! Back in the mid 70s, my husband and I in the NCO housing at the North side End of that flightline. I used to watch those B52s practicing their touch n goes for hours on end, but I was only scared once when it was obvious there was a serious mechanical issue ... and thank God the crew recovered from the fuel issue and managed a safe landing without any major safety crisis. I saw what had the propensity to become a deadly situation, but because of the command of that base in those days, everyone had confidence that the Machine Of the SAC STRUCTURE had integrity. The only difference between then and when the crash occurred revolves around the Cold War still being a perceived threatening situation...and Fairchild AFB was the closest SAC base and First to respond! We had more Alerts than Any other base, and day or night, expectations remained gold standard high! Dropping Expectations in Military Services is the only way to guarantee losing the Country we know and love. Political BS IS THE ITHER WAY.., AND THATS WHERE WE STAND IN 2923 !

[@stevenjames4222]

Lessons have NOT been learned. There are RAF and U. S. Air Force aircraft flying the Mach Loop in Wales and their reasoning/excuses are “it’s an exercise”. And there was a near miss in November 2017.

[@murrygandy6546]

Excellent presentation. I had no idea the pilot was Chief of Stan Eval at Fairchild at the time of the accident. Stan Eval's job is to ensure all air crews are proficient and adhere to safe flying practices at all times. It is obvious this pilot should have been disciplined, grounded and fired way before the accident occurred. Tragic that those on board lost their lives because higher ups allowed the hot dog aircraft commander to keep his job. Totally inexcusable. The punishment was not severe enough.

[@anthonyclay8389]

I wished Holland was the only one that died

[@JohnJohnson-fr5cx]

Not cool breh

[@greymark420]

Very interesting presentation. As stated a completely avoidable accident conducted by a reckless aviator and covered up by senior personnel.

[@cdavidlake2]

Absolutely fascinating.

[@jerrymarshall2095]

Damn,it's good he didn't napalm a crowd of onlookers at the real airshow,and it good he never lived to fly a passenger jet,other than that...

[@patrickflohe7427]

Huh? Since when do they even carry napalm at an airshow, or B-52s fly with it at all (at least in recent times).

[@VypeReaper]

@@patrickflohe7427 the explosion itself, retard. The B-52 explosion was like a napalm bomb. Fucking fire everywhere. Get it now little retard?

[@goodlordyogurt]

​@patrickflohe7427 he's referring to the fiery wreckage of the B52. It may as well have been napalm how loaded with fuel it was.

[@WConn100]

I can assure you that this is just LIP SERVICE. The brass hats are hesitant to bring heat upon one of their own. An enlisted man will be busted in a heart beat but an officer/pilot? Not common at all.

[@paulmurphy773]

If this had happened in the good old day's of SAC, command heads would have rolled... back then they didn't hesitate if violations had happened SAC would fire command staff up to and including the Wing Commander sometimes on the spot...look at the old days when Selmon Wells was the SAC IG... he is noted for firing Wing Commanders on the spot during IG inspections

[@murrygandy6546]

I remember he wasn't called Sundown Wells for nothing. When he fired someone they were to be gone and off base by sundown.

[@randydogs61]

A Standard not met is a New Standard set, The Fairchild Command failed , its that simple.

[@orvillemeadows3492]

A sad pathetic waste of a B-52 and 3 good men 😡

[@waynecespedes7180]

Murder Suicide the pilot knew what he was doing and nose dived that bird into the ground because his co pilot who was his CO was making sure that would be the last time he flew in USAAF I wish the government and usaaf would release the radio transmissions that occurred between the 2 up front

[@jeremyfisher8782]

I have read about this crash -- do you have any idea what the communications contain? Anyone who watched that crash would probably love to know what the conversation was inside the cockpit. I know one of the crew tried to punch out .... which was way too late and way too low.

[@faustinoaleman1677]

I agree 100% with your take on it being a murder suicide. Bud Holland clearly exhibited narcissistic personality disorder traits on many occasions, in my opinion. It is well known people with this disorder have an extremely high suicide rate and are very vindictive. In no way does it excuse his actions that day.