U.S. Marines Say a Moment's Confusion Caused the Fatal 2018 Air Collision

The existence of a command climate like that in today's world surprises me. But a forward deployed USMC squadron would be a most likely candidate, IMO.
 
The official report is linked to in the article referenced above however that link has a "reader tool" laid over the document which makes it very irritating to try to read.

Changing the URL suffix from .html to .pdf allows access to a normal pdf file which I find easier to manage. It is apparently 1600 pages!!! I doubt I'll read that much of it:)

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6431155/KCJAGAMN-TOTAL.pdf
 
Reminiscent of Tail hook or the Army’s version which never got coverage AAAA Germany before the wall came down...hell any O club with Aviation for that matter in my era...my first unit at at Brigade level had 22 dead in 18 months...not to make light of it but for a while that command climate was not unusual...
 
"Inexperienced in night flying and confused, PROFANE 12 evidently lost situational awareness and moved right instead of left. According to the report, “PROFANE 12 crossed over SUMO 41 from the left to right side, then abruptly corrected back towards SUMO 41 and impacted SUMO 41 in the vicinity of the right side rear jump door.”

The big tanker was badly damaged and was last seen on fire, diving towards the tops of clouds at 12,000 feet."
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Inexperience combined with loss of situational awareness is a dangerous cocktail. I see it in the comments here on POA all the time. Inexperienced pilots try to conceal their ignorance by making assumptions then, after the fact, come here to post threads titled "What should I have done?" It can happen on the ground, "Was I cleared all the way to the departure runway?" Or in the air, "Should I have extended downwind instead?" Simuflight used to teach three critical success factors, one of which includes the "conservative response to challenge". When we find ourselves not where somebody else is expecting us to be, it's time to declare a "Time out!" and confess our situation to the others. In this case, the inexperienced PIC tried to recover and lost track of the big tanker off to his left, paying for it with his life.
 
I read a few hundred pages last night. The Squadron CO, the SXO, the Air Safety Officer, and a couple of others got the chop. They were running a loose outfit and ignoring rules right and left.

The mishap pilot had performed one out of six required day air to air refuelings 517 days before the accident (365 day expiry), and one out of six required night air to air refuelings months earlier. He was a substandard pilot that required remedial training at every level of advancement, and wasn't qualified to be on the mission that killed him and six others.
 
Substandard pilot was one of the big issues. Years ago substandard or B team pilots as some called them were removed from flight status. Today this is not politically possible in many situations. Commanders are forced to carry those pilots and disaster is often the result. It also forces the A team pilots to do more than their fair share of the difficult flying.
 
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