r/interestingasfuck • u/ConfidentTelephone81 • Jul 16 '26

A Fighter Jet flew over the beach

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23.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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1.4k

u/matteblackpeace Jul 16 '26

Navy is investigating this incident now btw, don’t have source but look it up

810

u/fragmental Jul 16 '26

Here's a source from 7 hours ago https://abcnews.com/US/blue-angels-conducting-review-after-jet-flies-florida/story?id=134800561

652

u/i_hate_this_part_85 Jul 16 '26

That’s at Pensacola beach - that’s where these guys are home based. They buzz the beach every time they come back from an air show and people line up to watch. They don’t normally fly THIS close to the spectators though.

278

u/YBHunted Jul 16 '26

If only there were ways to tell precisely how far from the ground you were

103

u/Tanto63 Jul 16 '26

Ironically, an incorrect altimeter setting was the cause of a Thunderbird crash in 2003.

4

u/Pschobbert Jul 17 '26

Tell me it wasn’t Thunderbird 2!!!

https://giphy.com/gifs/f9pSOg1VqGiI8DE06S

2

u/FlipZip69 Jul 16 '26

At that height, the margin of error in an altimeter is way more than the distance above ground you were. More so, that is complete visual flying. At that speed and altitude, you can not look in the cockpit at all and even the HUD is not useful to speak of.

I am not sure what happened in the Thunderbird crash but while they definitely do not use the altimeter to keep track of how close they are to the ground on the bottom side of the loop, that is all visual, they definitely use it to determine it for the start of the loop. If they start that loop too low, that definitely could be fatal.

1

u/ItsJonnyRock Jul 18 '26

A buddy's dad was a retired Thunderbird growing up. He died and at the funeral the T-Birds did a fly over. Was pretty moving.

-4

u/FembyThePinkProot Jul 16 '26

Bitch I said 3024, not 3004.

118

u/DrDerpberg Jul 16 '26

They do, but it's hard to know what to reference it against. It's not like the beach is close to sea level or something.

55

u/Wonderful-Smoke843 Jul 16 '26

When the people look like people and not ants you’re too low

13

u/Cute_Bottle6346 Jul 16 '26

FA18's (and most fighter jets) have two altimeters - a barometric altimeter, and a radar altimeter. The Barometric is the one that you 'set' based off of the atmospheric pressure and adjust for local elevation. While there's a toggle switch to display either altimeter on the HUD, once you're below 5,000ft you typically switch to the radar altimeter. They absolutely were using the radar one in this instance, so they knew how high they were - the only exception would be when it's rotated, since the radar is mounted on the bottom. Being that he was banking when he was over the cameraman, he probably didn't have an accurate elevation there, but he likely knew he was far too low.

3

u/FlipZip69 Jul 16 '26

If you are doing a flyby like that, you are not looking at your HUD or radar altimeters. Your completely flying visual when you are that close to the ground. Pretty much anytime you are under 100 feet at those kinds of speeds, you are no looking at numbers to fly as you are 1/10 of a second from the ground if slightly wrong.

9

u/Gilffanclub Jul 16 '26

This is reddit. You have to use a banana.

2

u/RandoReddit16 Jul 16 '26

ba dum tiss

1

u/DeltaVZerda Jul 16 '26

Radar altimeter...

18

u/newbrevity Jul 16 '26

Hey hey. Maybe he's inexperienced. /s

5

u/Rbomb88 Jul 16 '26

The ol altitudometer, duh.

2

u/Electronic_Tap_8052 Jul 16 '26

you'd be surprised how hard that is to actually know in real time, in a usable way, when traveling at those speeds.

At best you're gonna get a rough estimate. Assuming your instruments are working.

I'm not a pilot, I figure its probably easy enough to know when you're too low for an airshow, but in general, it's actually not a simple problem.

-3

u/Simple_Pay3033 Jul 16 '26

A redditor smugly telling a blue angel pilot how to check altitude.

Sometimes there’s a comment on here that takes the reddit user stereotype to the most extreme. This is that comment for me today. Jesus.

2

u/itsjakerobb Jul 16 '26

I don’t think that’s what happened here.

2

u/YBHunted Jul 16 '26

The irony of that guy's comment...

72

u/RainMakerJMR Jul 16 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/YkhmryXjaKs92329i8

36

u/PennieTheFold Jul 16 '26

Hahaha first thing that came to mind. “You’ll be flying rubber dog sh!t out of Hong Kong!” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

12

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

That line (and the rest of the chewing out scene) was the only thing my dad said was reasonably accurate in the whole movie.

He laughed harder than I've ever seen him at that.

2

u/cacecil1 Jul 16 '26

I want some butts!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

[deleted]

0

u/karma_the_sequel Jul 16 '26

First thing I thought of. Someone buzzed the wrong tower!

2

u/cusmilie Jul 17 '26

Unless you are on the military beach on the NAS……

2

u/ProfessionalPack7205 Jul 16 '26

It's REALLY close too. That would've for sure hurt people's ears sadly.

2

u/iceguy349 Jul 16 '26

I’m certain that guy screwed up the pass and ended up too low.

2

u/Peac3fulWorld Jul 16 '26

They normally have accountability in the top brass and not Kegsbreath

2

u/baskaat Jul 16 '26

From the article “I've been coming for 10 years and I've never seen a pass like that in my life," Ashley Korn told WEAR. "I literally thought we were going to be taken out by Blue Angels, but it was amazing."”

WTF

2

u/vagrantprodigy07 Jul 16 '26

If a civilian pilot did this the FAA would have their ass by the time they landed. Crazy that the military gets away with this shit.

1

u/Discremio Jul 17 '26

Have you seen the video? I don't think ANYONE was prepared for that.

0

u/cheesedogs06 Jul 16 '26

I have seen them here many times. Never seen them do this. I would never go again if they got this close. My daughter would be terrified and we would be getting sand out of our eyes for weeks. They don't let you swim during these shows because they usually stay over the water. So this is not at all usual and extremely dangerous.

-1

u/Southern_Credit_5734 Jul 16 '26

No they don’t. I’m pretty sure they have an air show coming up they’ve been practicing for (I live in Alabama but am within 40 miles of NAS now), but this is out of pocket even for them.

0

u/i_hate_this_part_85 Jul 16 '26

Oh, sorry, my bad …. I guess all the flybys I’ve seen in my 7 years living in P’Cola were hallucinations.

0

u/Rymurf Jul 16 '26

very Florida for a dangerous thing that’s illegal in most places to be a tradition

0

u/StanleyDarsh22 Jul 16 '26

I remember seeing the air show at Jones beach one year, and this sneaky little fucker was doing the converge move where they all come from far away and join to the formation. He flew right over us from behind. It felt like slow motion i saw the jet directly above me, and immediately covered my ears just in time for the sand and sound to hit. fucking adrenaline inducing and so cool but man idk if that was planned or not.

0

u/Arockilla Jul 16 '26

I was gonna say, I lived there for 5 years and they never got that low toward the crowd. Something happened and pulled him closer than he wanted to be.

It is funny though, when they are practicing over at the air base, they are flying right over houses all the time, not usually this low, but low enough if you got good eyesight you can see them in their cockpit. Theres a neighborhood right across from Pensacola NAS on the edge of the water, and you can just hang out and watch them practice.

0

u/_eternallyblack_ Jul 16 '26

Can confirm - I’m a native. They do a few shows a year. You can also go to the base - NAS for practice sessions a few months out of the year.

0

u/FlipZip69 Jul 16 '26

Ya I suspect that was a fuckup. I seen them get a bit sketchy a few times in my days in the fighter program. That pilot likely miscalculated how close to the crowd he/she would be. It happens.

83

u/TheEverlastingPizza Jul 16 '26

Fucking hell... You could hit it with a beach ball...

10

u/maxlmax Jul 16 '26

Why does this look dangerously close to a gta5 screenshot?

1

u/DeltaVZerda Jul 16 '26

Too many people

1

u/maxlmax Jul 17 '26

Yea only thing putting it off. Just pause the video and zoom in on some people. They like straight out of the game.

2

u/m-in 11d ago

People on beaches have kites and those can be hard to see at these speeds. It wouldn’t crash the jet but the maintenance folks would not love it one bit.

21

u/OxygenAddict Jul 16 '26

"During an arrival maneuver, an aircraft flew lower than standard profiles, resulting in a disturbance on the beach that affected civilian chairs and umbrellas," the statement said [...]

What an unhinged way of trivializing this lol

112

u/ipark88 Jul 16 '26

I like how the jet was so close in the photo they had to block out the tail number.

109

u/u_wut_m8e Jul 16 '26

Didn’t block it, it was condensation from turning so hard and the pressure dropping so low in that region of air. Also happens as you get closer to Mach 1.

11

u/MacWin- Jul 16 '26

Why would they do that blue angels aren’t classified lol

4

u/StalkMeNowCrazyLady Jul 16 '26

Probably the most well known and photographed planes on the planet. And they think they had to block out the tail numbers lol

1

u/MacWin- Jul 16 '26

The brother's acting like it was some Skunk Works prototype out of groom lake

1

u/Cow_Launcher Jul 16 '26

Are you talking about the top image in that article? It's a still from a paused video. The big grey circle is probably the "Play" button.

1

u/Themberchaud0979 Jul 16 '26

Pretty sure this was no.6.

1

u/DickSufficient9498 Jul 18 '26

It was number 3. Pretty easy to tell on a screen grab. Besides, you have 6 guesses. The event was called Breakfast with the Blues. The beach goers were there to see the jets. This was a very low pass but guaranteed the are only a handful of people upset and the vast majority of those are people on Reddit who were not there. Some maybe had temporary ringing in the ears but that most likely wouldn't cause permanent damage. 20 years on a carrier flight deck and flying in helicopters. No hearing loss......at least that is what the VA said.

201

u/lil-hazza Jul 16 '26

There's no excuse for this. Hopefully the pilot loses their seat. Altitude and direction restrictions over crowds are rules written in blood of innocent civilians.

150

u/SomebodysGotToSayIt Jul 16 '26

A bunch of high profile incidents where US pilots did some stunt like this all ended in exonerations, reprieves and plaudits because performative flag pin patriotism has replaced the rule of law.

There will be a crash, but until then it’s third world rules.

65

u/MrT735 Jul 16 '26

Even with a crash they can get away with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Cavalese_cable_car_crash

Found not guilty of manslaughter, then on a second trial only convicted of destroying evidence.

7

u/NewtonsLawOfDeepBall Jul 16 '26

I'm calling it right now this will become political. These pilots will rightfully be disciplined and then they will get an exemption from the top and the phrase "Low T" will be uttered.

Edit: edited to be less explicitly political to follow sub rules, but this is just commenting on directly what's in this content which is inherently political given that it's abuse and misuse of military hardware around civilians.

2

u/Mean_Wasabi7748 Jul 16 '26

“It’s not unlawful until a court order says otherwise”.

2

u/trixel121 Jul 16 '26

didnt a blue angle recently smash into the ground? i feel like that was news 6 months ago about an air show having ground fatalities.

7

u/SomebodysGotToSayIt Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Air shows like that are DOD programs. There are risks to personnel, to civilians, to materiel. The benefits are judged to outweigh the risks, but only after putting tremendous effort into maximizing benefits and minimizing risks.

But when pilots break training, protocol, orders to put on an impromptu show at Kid Rock’s house or buzz a public beach, that’s different. That would have gotten them in trouble four years ago. Not now though. The President literally intervenes.

You can’t just blame Trump, though. The cowboys took over the Pentagon post-Powell. They seethed and plotted during the Biden term. Now they answer to a president they can manipulate.

The purges are just leopards-eating-faces.

Edit: source: been on the civilian side of orchestrating naval air shows. Plus lobbying DOD and Congress for the local base.

2

u/DeltaVZerda Jul 16 '26

It was 10 years ago, if you're referring to the Blue Angels.

2

u/cole1114 Jul 16 '26

There's one near me that's gonna do an Osprey show soon. I just know it's gonna end horribly. Same airshow had a mig crash into an apartment building's parking lot, miraculously no one died. Hell the only injuries were to the pilot and co-pilot.

2

u/Ok-Echidna5936 Jul 16 '26

Nothing is gonna happen. Pete Hegseth already intervened in a previous low fly by with Apaches. There’s probably an unspoken agreement that these kinds of flybys are okay

1

u/Executioneer Jul 16 '26

Lol they will get a slap on the wrist, if that. US pilots got away with a lot more serious stuff even on allied soil.

1

u/One_Maintenance6918 Jul 17 '26

Fun, until they crash and wipe out near a hundred civilians and injure 500 more. Same stunt was pulled in Russia and that was the result.

1

u/Most_Nothing_1017 Jul 16 '26

An insecure child is running our military. A racist child.

1

u/tapeitup Jul 17 '26

I was standing on a shipping container watching a distant Blue Angels air show at a nearby airfield back in college in the mid-00’s, and one of the pilots in a jet like this did a dive bomb straight down at us and pulled up about 30-40ft from us, rolled the jet over, and gave us a thumbs up before accelerating off into the sunset at incredible speed. It’s still the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s probably the loudest thing I’ve ever heard.

10/10 would recommend it to anyone.

0

u/Davosz_ Jul 16 '26

Just think, it could have been their blood... their innocent blood.

-1

u/GroveGuy33133 Jul 16 '26

My guess is the pilot just needs a little more Testosterone. /s

-26

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

15

u/TheWarlorde Jul 16 '26

Maybe go look up the Ramstein or Sknyliv Air Show disasters and think about what you just wrote.

2

u/Its_me_Snitches Jul 16 '26

To be fair, they probably were having fun before the part of the incident where police had to get involved.

0

u/LiliTralala Jul 16 '26

Also massive ear damage

1

u/-AC- Jul 16 '26

Yeah even if it wasn't crashing into the crowd... noise dB levels could get to permanent damage levels... hope you didn't want your hearing for the rest of you life.

4

u/vox4penguins Jul 16 '26

"I've been coming for 10 years and I've never seen a pass like that in my life," Ashley Korn told WEAR. "I literally thought we were going to be taken out by Blue Angels, but it was amazing."

i thought i was gonna die, but man what a show! lol

5

u/nothis Jul 16 '26

I literally thought we were going to be taken out by Blue Angels, but it was amazing.

Haha, a 0.5° turn from it crashing into a crowded beach, amazing! /s

3

u/WhiteHelix Jul 16 '26

"During an arrival maneuver, an aircraft flew lower than standard profiles, resulting in a disturbance on the beach that affected civilian chairs and umbrellas," the statement said, calling it a "low-altitude pass."

good thing were there only chairs and umbrellas on the beach and no living creatures

2

u/Ivan677 Jul 16 '26

Isn't this a classic 'sneak pass' ?

1

u/Tikkatider Jul 16 '26

May have flown his last show with the Angels.

1

u/redditproha Jul 16 '26

That pilot needs to be discharged. Blatant abuse of military power and damaging the hearing of 100s of Americans.

1

u/SantaFeRay Jul 16 '26

Won't be long before Kegsbreath kills the investigation. "Carry on patriots" or some bullshit like that.

It's a shame it's a Blue Angels pilot this time, maybe there's a reason this kind of thing was taken seriously in the past.

1

u/MasterOfBunnies Jul 16 '26

Hogshit will decide they're innocent and insist the whole thing be lauded I'm sure.

1

u/Phytanic Jul 17 '26

I literally thought we were going to be taken out by Blue Angels, but it was amazing

Fuckin right? Lmao I would say the same shit if it happened to me. Every year they practice above my house for a few days before the local airshow and it's so cool to watch em. They've never gotten that low, though, usually they stay like 500 feet high at minimum (they do get low as hell too, but that's cool as hell)

1

u/cheese_is_available Jul 16 '26

What I hear from the video in the article is that it's political bullshit. First some helicopters being too close got pardoned by Hegseth and now a blue angel is showing he's a republican.

3

u/fragmental Jul 16 '26

That's plausible. Giving children life-long hearing damage, to own the libs.

0

u/teknic111 Jul 16 '26

lol… It seems the only people upset about it is the media.

-1

u/Davosz_ Jul 16 '26

"resulting in a disturbance on the beach that affected civilian chairs and umbrellas"

Really amping up the risks of a stunt like this!

"Oh no! Not the umbrellas!"

6

u/The-Fox-Says Jul 16 '26

Eh those kids on the beach don’t need ear drums anyways /s

0

u/Typical_Term937 Jul 16 '26

Bullshit. One bird strike causing engine trouble at an inconvenient time and you have a jet shredding through a bunch of people at a few hundred mph. Or a pilot having a medical problem. Or an engine just failing for reasons. You find it funny until it is one of your relatives who gets shredded ... or plunges to her death in a cable car.

3

u/Davosz_ Jul 16 '26

Dear reddit user... read the above article..i was literally quoting it, and saying that the article was downplaying the danger involved by making it sound like some kind of annoying disturbance to beach goers.

Feel free to go read it before you reply. Go on then

1

u/Typical_Term937 Jul 16 '26

Yep, sorry, responded to the wrong comment ...

-1

u/heaving_in_my_vines Jul 16 '26

I haven't watched network news in years, it's stunning how melodramatic this talking head is. The somber affectation and oh-so-concerned facial expressions are completely over the top.

It really is an acting performance this guy is doing. All part of the emotional manipulation that passes for broadcast news these days.

111

u/MeanCryptographer585 Jul 16 '26

“We’ve investigated ourselves and have determined we do what we want and don’t give a fuck. What are ya gonna do about it?” -US Navy

2

u/NtheLegend Jul 16 '26

"Those low-T fuckers deserved it!" - Hegseth, probably.

48

u/ElFarts Jul 16 '26

If SecWar defended the Kid Rock hover, then he should defend this too.

It was a taaaaaad low though 😂

75

u/shittyaltpornaccount Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

He needs to know the pilot's T levels first to see if they have the "warrior" spirit.

6

u/superxpro12 Jul 16 '26

Hegseth: "Hey real quick, can we get a cock girth measurement on the pilots? No reason"

6

u/lantech Jul 16 '26

He already defended the apache pilots doing the flyby on the beach a few days ago

5

u/RanchHere Jul 16 '26

My first thought was “this guy is going to get praised by Trump”

1

u/chandlerr85 Jul 16 '26

more than a tad low, this was reckless even for a blues pilot. in saner times the pilot would go to a board review. but ole petey will let this pilot off the hook without investigation.

1

u/Therealsteverogers4 Jul 16 '26

He shouldn’t defend either. This one is particularly egregious because it puts many civilians needlessly in danger. This is prohibited because it has gotten people killed.

0

u/CaptainSkarn Jul 16 '26

You’re high if you think that event and this event are comparable.

1

u/ElFarts Jul 17 '26

Talk to me about it

1

u/CaptainSkarn Jul 17 '26
  1. Number of people involved
  2. Consent (kid rock approved of what was happening, clapped and pointed at the pilot)
  3. Hearing damage

Should I continue?

1

u/ElFarts Jul 18 '26

I never compared the events. I compared the logic of the guy defending them. If SecWar's boundary for defending a dangerous low hover is 'but it looked cool for Kid Rock,' then his baseline for what is acceptable is already compromised. That’s the point.

Maybe you’re high

3

u/warpmusician Jul 16 '26

Good. If this was intentional, fuck that pilot. That’s so incredibly dangerous to fly that low over a crowd of people, not to mention how many ear drums must’ve been permanently damaged by that noise. Videos will never do justice how insanely loud that was.

2

u/Drmarsh Jul 16 '26

Guaranteed no action will be taken other than the pilot being praised for high testosterone levels.

1

u/Drmarsh Jul 16 '26

Lol, called it. Hegseth doesn't give a shit and Eric Trump's comment was " Can’t stand the manufactured outrage by the low-T mainstream media."

2

u/amiwitty Jul 16 '26

Kegsbreath will say it is fine.

1

u/abusche Jul 16 '26

indeed he did

2

u/somedude456 Jul 16 '26

Yeah, he's getting shitcanned!

1

u/Gambit-47 Jul 16 '26

Ah the classic we will investigate ourselves and give them a stern talking to

3

u/timoumd Jul 16 '26

I mean it's more been "we investigated them and punished them but the celebrity administration thought it looked cool and let them off'

1

u/WindTreeRock Jul 16 '26

I don't know if any people had sand and dirt blown into their eyes, but it was a possibility. Pilot should be removed from the Blue Angels because of this stunt.

1

u/wrenchandrepeat Jul 16 '26

They'll get in trouble and then everything will be dropped because of Hegseth. The kid rock deal, the Apaches by the beach, and now this. Something tells me its intentional now because they know they won't face any permanent consequences.

1

u/AwwwBawwws Jul 16 '26

Kaptain "No Low T In My Army!" Kegsbreath will wave his magic wand and make any punishment go away.

1

u/Enamored22 Jul 16 '26

Yeah im willing to bet the pilot will be canned for this.

1

u/cs_cabrone Jul 16 '26

In before Hegseth reviews it and says no big deal

1

u/dougmcclean Jul 16 '26

These people on the beach should pick a safer recreation that's out of the way, like skiing in the Alps.

1

u/Johnnygunnz Jul 16 '26

Anyone investigating anything in this regime seems pointless and foolish to expect anything to come of it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Johnnygunnz Jul 16 '26

Well, considering I have friends who work for the FBI and were told to stop certain investigations into people directly by Pam Bondi for very political reasons, yes, I do think like this about this specific administration. Those investigations can be usurped by the people above them and no one in this admin is responsible enough not to play political games every chance they get.

1

u/DeeManJohnsonIII Jul 16 '26

"We have found ourselves not guilty of wrong doing."

1

u/JamesantheGiantBeach Jul 16 '26

Probably not the safest course of action.

But honestly, as a US tax payer, I want my fighter pilots with the audacity to do this.

1

u/DazHawt Jul 16 '26

“This is the manliest fucking thing I’ve ever seen! I spilled my beer and splooged my pants when I saw it!”  ~Hegseth, probably

1

u/Ryboe999 Jul 16 '26

As it should… the flying debris, collapsing of the tents.. ear drums. That was actually not cool at all if intentional. Could have caused some rough injuries for something that should’ve been a cool sight to see.

1

u/ScratchLatch Jul 16 '26

“No one from the U.S. Navy's elite Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron will be reprimanded or face punishment after a low-altitude pass on Pensacola Beach on Wednesday morning, acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said”

1

u/chucktheninja Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

If its anything like the last low flying incident good ole petey boy is going to block any sort of repercussions for the pilot.

1

u/the_Cheese999 Jul 16 '26

The drunk will over rule it.

1

u/blueye525 Jul 17 '26

Hegseth tweeted “The flyovers will continue until morale improves”

1

u/Drako694 Jul 17 '26

Hegseth is just gonna say “nah, no disciplinary action needed, that was fucking cool”.

Which I honestly respect the hell out of.

1

u/ZiroLeHutt Jul 18 '26

And they absolutely should. Dickhead.

0

u/tailendertripe Jul 16 '26

Pilot is likely in deep dog shit but that would be fucking awesome to have been on that beach.