Latest news with #F18
NDTV
a day ago
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Video: Spanish EF-18 Hornet Jet Nearly Crashes Into Crowd During Airshow
Madrid: A Spanish Air Force EF-18 Hornet fighter jet had a close call after it appeared to lose control and crash during an airshow at a crowded beach in Gijon over the weekend. The incident occurred on Sunday at San Lorenzo Bay in northern Spain's Asturias. Videos of the near crash have gone viral on social media, showing Hornet flying at very low altitude towards the beach packed with spectators, when it executed a hard right roll. The sudden manoeuvre made the jet descend lower than normal, making it seem like the jet was losing control mid-air. But the plane soon recovered stability and climbed up. The terrifying footage shows puffs of black smoke rising from the plane, shocking the audience, many of whom had their cameras rolling. A Spanish F18 nearly crashes during an airshow in Spain this weekend 😨 . . . 🎥©️VISUAIR — Virginie Sigonney (@GinieSigonney) July 28, 2025 The Spanish Air Force later took to X to explain what happened at the airshow and said the pilot performed the evasive manoeuvre to avoid hitting birds in the jet's flight path. A bird strike while the Hornet was flying at such a low angle toward a crowd could have resulted in a big disaster, and the pilot's timely actions saved many lives. Muchos nos habéis estado preguntando, por eso, en este hilo, os contamos qué pasó durante el festival aéreo de Gijón. Hilo 🧵 — Ejército del Aire y del Espacio (@EjercitoAire) July 28, 2025 "Many of you have been asking us, so in this thread, we'll tell you what happened during the Gijon air festival. As you have seen, one of our F-18 fighters performed an evasive manoeuvre upon detecting a flock of birds in its path. This action is part of the standard protocol to preserve both the pilot's safety and the public's security," the post in Spanish said. "Our aviators are trained to react in milliseconds to any unforeseen event. In this case, the pilot acted with exemplary speed and professionalism, avoiding a possible collision without compromising the exhibition. Safety is, and will continue to be, our top priority at every air show. Thank you to all attendees for your enthusiasm and trust. Let's keep flying together," it added. In a similar incident last month, the canopy of a Spanish EF2000 shattered after it took a bird strike during its airshow routine.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spanish F/A-18 Hornet Seen Nearly Crashing Into Surf During Beach Airshow (Updated)
A Spanish Air Force F/A-18 Hornet (EF-18 is Spain's designation for the jet) had a very close call during a remote airshow performance in picturesque Gijón. The Hornet was flying at very low altitude towards the beach, which was packed with spectators, in a near-perpendicular fashion, when it executed a hard right roll. The sudden maneuver saw the jet descend low above the waves before recovering and climbing out. Clearly it shocked the audience, many of whom had their cameras rolling. Hey @Aviation_Intel what do you think about this video from an F-18 of Spain Ejército del Aire in an air show in Gijón ? It was a near crash or not? — Godofredo de Bouillon (@g_bouillon) July 28, 2025 The incident does showcase one of the Hornet's most notable flying qualities, its ability to point its nose at extreme angles of attack (high-alpha), especially during lower-speed maneuvers. If it weren't for the F/A-18's ability to do this, there is a real possibility the pilot and their aircraft would not have survived. If the jet, or pieces of it, had careened into the beach, it would have been a massive disaster. Sustaco — Q*bert (@Cotidianeous) July 27, 2025 The first time I saw the video, it did not have the hallmarks of a major mistake in a routine, such as entering a maneuver below the prescribed altitude, or a pilot 'hot dogging' in front of a crowd. Spain's air arm is a professional service, and the idea that one of its fighter pilots would do such a thing, especially in front of thousands of people, is unlikely. Also, doing such a maneuver flying at a perpendicular angle to the crowd is extremely dangerous as the jet's momentum could take it across the showline and into the crowd. This risk is usually briefed at every airshow. It's also worth noting that Spain lost a Hornet during a practice flight for an airshow routine back in 2023. When looking at numerous videos very closely, it appears that the pilot may have actually been avoiding birds in the jet's flight path. This would explain the rapid hard roll. A catastrophic bird strike while flying at this angle toward the crowd could have resulted in a big disaster. Seems there's a bird that crosses in front just before the plane nearly become inverted. Wonder if the pilot was instinctively trying to avoid it and maybe others, forgetting quite how close he/she was to the ground? — Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) July 28, 2025 Muchos nos habéis estado preguntando, por eso, en este hilo, os contamos qué pasó durante el festival aéreo de Gijó — Ejército del Aire y del Espacio (@EjercitoAire) July 28, 2025 Just last month, a Spanish EF2000 took a bird strike during its airshow routine, shattering the canopy. You can read about this incident here. We have reached out for an explanation on what happened. We will update this post if we receive more Spanish Air Force has taken to X to explain what happened, and our initial analysis was correct. See below (translated via X): 'Many of you have been asking us, so in this thread, we'll tell you what happened during the Gijón air festival. As you have seen, one of our F-18 fighters performed an evasive maneuver upon detecting a flock of birds in its path. This action is part of the standard protocol to preserve both the pilot's safety and the public's security. Our aviators are trained to react in milliseconds to any unforeseen event. In this case, the pilot acted with exemplary speed and professionalism, avoiding a possible collision without compromising the exhibition. Safety is, and will continue to be, our top priority at every air show. Thank you to all attendees for your enthusiasm and trust. Let's keep flying together!' Muchos nos habéis estado preguntando, por eso, en este hilo, os contamos qué pasó durante el festival aéreo de Gijó — Ejército del Aire y del Espacio (@EjercitoAire) July 28, 2025 Contact the author: Tyler@ Solve the daily Crossword
Wall Street Journal
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Pentagon Probe Focuses on Whether Hegseth Texts Shared Classified Information
WASHINGTON—A Pentagon inspector general investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal messaging service is focusing on whether details of a military operation were classified and if anyone ordered texts to be deleted, people familiar with the probe said. Pentagon officials have said that messages Hegseth sent in March about a U.S. attack in Yemen didn't contain classified information. He shared specific times that F-18 jet fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles would be used in the attack as well as other normally-closely held details of the airstrikes, according to a transcript of the chat released by the Atlantic.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Landing on an aircraft carrier at night
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Being an F-18 pilot takes hours of training and practice. After pilots have made a specific score on landing and taking off during the day, the lights turn off, and the stakes are higher. Each pilot has to land in the middle of the ocean, on an aircraft carrier, in the middle of the night. Lieutenant Andrew Mueller, F-18 Instructor Pilot, explained that this is important for all operations. Missions usually happen at night. 'The night is where we operate. The opportunity to go out there and do our country's good deeds. There are bad people around the globe that need to be taken care of, and at night is the best way to do it,' said Mueller. What it takes to be a Navy pilot While this is hard for an onlooker's brain to comprehend, it's even more mentally tough for the pilots trying to land in complete darkness. 'It's pretty tough for the human mind to literally be staring at death in the face and a guy's on the radio being like 'hey, you look good dude, keep it coming.'' Mueller doesn't mean to discredit pilots who are nervous; he's been there before and knows it's tough each time things don't look right. 'You see a ship, you know, pitching up and down into the blackness and the propellers coming out, and you're like 'oh, I'm supposed to land there, very cool. And at one point, the LA can go so far down the ship comes out of the water that it just completely disappears and you're basically staring at death in the face.' The best advice he gives to pilots he's training, 'When you walk out onto an aircraft carrier deck at night, take a deep breath, and go like okay well no, I'm actually, I'm the boogie man tonight, I'm the darkness, and then we go do some good work for the US Navy.' To see more from Shelby's naval journey, check out the News 2 special report . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What it takes to be a Navy pilot
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier has been an airport at sea since 2009. Over 5,000 sailors are on board when the ship is at capacity, and the F-18 and F-35 pilots are one of the main jobs. Being a part of naval aviation takes years of training, and when News 2's Shelby Mac came aboard the CVN-77 pilots were doing aircraft carrier qualifications. This is when pilots must take off and land on the aircraft carrier during the day and night a certain number of times, and get a certain score to be ready for upcoming missions. Lieutenant Andrew Mueller, F-18 Instructor Pilot, has been training new naval pilots on the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush this season. 'We teach them to fly the Super Hornet, and this is final, their graduation here in which we're teaching them to land on the ship both day and night,' said Mueller, call sign Doug. Tour the Captain's Import Cabin aboard the USS George H. W. Bush This is no small task since the runway is 300 feet with the assistance of a catapult versus more than 5,000 feet on dry land for an F-18 take-off. 'As you launch off a catapult your brain is experiencing this feeling of rolling back in your head and it's giving the sensation that you're being shot up into the ether, so you really don't want to manipulate the controls until after you've come off then end, and the jets auto-trimmed to fly you away. So, you don't want to hastily grab the stick and push it either direction. So nice, disciplined shot, sweet, good shot, safely fly away, and then go into your procedures from there.' Mueller is a second-generation Navy pilot, and the Hollywood movies helped others understand what exactly his dad's job was. 'My old man was actually a Navy Aviator back in the day, and prior to the original Top Gun movie coming out, people had no idea what Naval Aviators did, what an aircraft carrier was. It was almost an unknown group of fighter pilots going out and doing things, but once you make a couple of movies about it, then I think it puts it into the public's imagination, and it increases recruiting and retention as well.' Mueller said he's proud of the work naval aviation does for our country, but the team wouldn't be successful without the entire crew. 'There are thirteen pilots and maybe ten jet aircraft, but honestly, there are 300 hard-working Navy sailors who are making sure that the engines are operational, the flight controls are there, and the software, everything that makes the whole team work.' Once pilots have made a specific score on taking off and landing during the day, night comes and it's time to land on a moving runway in complete darkness. To see more from Shelby's naval journey, check out the News 2 special report . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
