It’s a first look at the crash that killed two Lemoore airmen last April.
The video shows the jet on a practice run before disaster struck. The footage was taken by an eyewitness to the crash.
It happened on April 6th, of last year, at
33-year-old Matthew Lowe piloted the jet. 28-year-old Nathan Williams was the Weapons Systems Officer on board.
According to the report released by the Navy, the two were practicing a maneuver called the “Loaded Roll.” They started the roll, the jet twists, and appears to level off just before it slammed into a field and burst into flames.
“It looked like a roll just too close to the ground,” said Bob Hayes, a retired Navy pilot.
Hayes has flown in
He looked at the video of the crash with us. And he says it appears the crew tried to recover, but ran out of time and airspace.
“Had they had more altitude they would have been fine. It's as simple as that. But I think they were trying to get close to the ground just like you would in an air show,” Hayes said.
After the crash, a training officer was interviewed by investigators. He had talked with Lowe and Williams the day before the crash and he asked them about the fateful maneuver.
He recounted: “I asked them, how’s the Loaded Roll, how does it feel?’ And they said “Hey that thing is no joke right?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s not.’”
That officer says he now wonders if pilot Matt Lowe was concerned about that maneuver.
The Navy has taken the “Loaded Roll” out of any future demonstration flights.