One of our fellow Afterburner Club members (and Marine Officer Candidate) Raymond, brought to my attention an incident of a fighter jet crashing in Ocala National Forest about a week or so ago.
The details were sketchy at first, but eventually the media was able to figure out that the type of aircraft was an AV-8 Harrier, that the pilot was able to eject safely, and that he was most likely participating in a training exercise at the Pine Castle bombing range in Florida.
When a military jet crashes, it’s up to the Department of Defense to investigate and they tend to be pretty tight-lipped about it. There are a good number of reasons for this, but the main one has to do with the fact that the Department of Defense can only reveal so much. We don’t really know for sure that the Harrier was at the Pine Castle bombing range (the reporter guessed that based on the fact that it was nearby) and the media only had one or two eyewitnesses saying that they heard what they thought sounded like the engine making popping noises before the crash.
Maybe it’s true, maybe not. But the Department of Defense can’t give us all the details. There are family members involved and we always want to know everything before going public. The government gets a lot of flak for keeping things from the general public, but the fact of the matter is that the general public is on a need-to-know basis.
In fact, the media can drive us crazy. When my best friend had a crash, we had a bunch of media folks in San Diego calling the squadron acting like concerned family members just to get the scoop (how about that for a bunch of weasels?).
Do you think that the government is right about keeping such a tight reign on military info? Which issues should the government keep from us and which ones should they let us know about? Why?
Express your constitutional option. You’re going to be a fighter pilot… what do you think?
Carolina Liechtenstein says
The media tends to spin stories, and sensationalize on things that really do not factor in during an aviation incident. They might make a big deal about the pilot’s race, gender, love life, newness, age, etc. It creates a negative public opinion or an inaccurate one. It ruins careers, or it can make it hard for the rest of us that fly that do not fit the media’s created and fake stereotype of what a pilot is. We’re not all skinny southern accented WASPS like in The Right Stuff. We’re a mix of highly trained and educated professionals.
Tom says
Well said.
Jake says
Quite frankly i am sick and tired of the media and their garbage! I agree with Carolina! They go too deep and try to grab whatever they can twisting and turning the story for the betterment of their careers, smudging others in the process. The military should be able to keep what they want to keep to some extent. As Ed said the general public is on a need to know basis. The Public doesnt really need to know about the crash, if they weren’t involved in that particular operation its non of their biz really. Accidents happen. Now if a significant number of planes started falling out of the sky back to back then yes it might be a good idea to tell them as to why before people start making up their own stories. Two things that really fire me up and get me going are politicians and the media! All we can do is try our best to stay our of their wake while continuing to chase and fulfill our dreams of TAKING TO THE SKIES as United States Fighter Pilots! BTW not to get off subject but i have been doing some soaring lately!! ITS THE BEST!!! Cessna’s are fun too but i think gliding really focusus on “seat of your pants” flying! TRY IT!!! Jake.
Joe says
If in any case the military is trying to hide things from the enemy, then they have the right to withhold information. If not however, the general public should be informed so that there is less, if no confusion.
Dan says
I agree with you all but I also think there is a need for balance. I am reminded of the B-29 crash in 1948 Waycross, Georgia. The gov’t covered up faulty maintenance practices, hiding behind the interests of National Security. All this so they could avoid lawsuits by the families, who I think deserved explanations as to what happened.
I think if the media is responsible, and reports facts only, I think they should dig as deep as they possibly can. The Wikipedia entry about the crash is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Waycross_B-29_crash and there are several more online articles if you do a quick Google search.
It should give us all pause, and appreciate the freedom of the press, even if they report things we don’t like to hear sometimes.
Just my two cents.
Dan Yager
USN – USS George Washington (CVN-73)
Cole says
Governments are just like that. Up here in Canada, there was a crash during a practice run for an airshow. During the practice one of our cf18s crashed. It was all caught on video, but the department of defense isn’t telling anyone about anything anyway. I guess they need to do that to keep from potential enemies learning too much about our military.
Joe says
Cole, that might be true, but if our government thought like that, then we would be in some deep shit. Because there are far easier, and more dependable, ways to get information on our military other than listening to what the media ‘thinks’.
chris says
I rember watching bits and parts of it on the news. and i agree that they need to know some information on why this happened, its just typical human concern, but the military has the right to hide some or most of the crucial information.
Jake says
Dan your a good guy! It did give me pause! I really need to think about the freedoms we do have, like freedom of the press. I just wish they wouldn’t be such weasels about it all the time! May we remember what the Constitution stands for and why its there! See you guys in the sky!!!!
Jordan says
If the pilots alright i think they should just leave it. things happen sometimes.
greeting from Aus!
jordan
Irwin says
We have the right to ask, but they have the right to not tell.
Adam says
I think in any situation there will always be information that needs to be withheld and information that can be shared. The problem is no one wants to be responsible for making a bad call by sharing information that should have been withheld. Either way we need official investigations to be complete and reports to be accurate before anything is released. And, we have moral obligations to wait for families to be notified properly of any lost or injured loved ones.
But, to a certain extent, I do believe that tax payers who helped pay for these jets have the right to know when one is destroyed in a crash. Especially when it could help stress the fact that our aging aircraft need to be replaced with newer models.