{"id":24883,"date":"2018-04-05T04:59:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T04:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/05\/air-force-thunderbirds-pilot-killed-in-f-16-crash-near-nellis-afb\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:42:55","slug":"air-force-thunderbirds-pilot-killed-in-f-16-crash-near-nellis-afb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/04\/05\/air-force-thunderbirds-pilot-killed-in-f-16-crash-near-nellis-afb\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Thunderbirds pilot killed in F-16 crash near Nellis AFB"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/2017\/12\/13\/air-force-thunderbirds-pick-new-commander\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Air Force Thunderbirds<\/a> pilot was killed Wednesday when his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/2018\/04\/04\/f-16-crashes-at-nellis-air-force-base\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed <\/a>over the Nevada Test and Training Range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday during a routine aerial demonstration training flight, Air Force officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The identity of the pilot is being withheld for 24 hours while his family is notified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An investigation is being conducted into the cause of the mishap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team\u2019s participation at March Air Reserve Base\u2019s \u201cThe March Field Air and Space Expo\u201d has been canceled. It is unknown how this accident will impact the remainder of the <a href=\"http:\/\/afthunderbirds.com\/site\/show-season\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">2018 Thunderbirds season<\/a>, which is scheduled to run through early November, the Air Force said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Thunderbirds, officially known as the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, is the Air Force\u2019s premiere demonstration team, known for its exciting and sharply choreographed shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team\u2019s jets often fly only a few feet from wingtip to wingtip, performing seemingly impossibly precise skills and capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was Nellis\u2019 first crash since two back-to-back crashes at the Nevada Test and Training Range last September, one of which was fatal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sept. 5, Lt. Col. Eric Shultz died when his plane crashed at the range. The Air Force has still not identified what Shultz was flying, but said it was assigned to Air Force Materiel Command. Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein later told Military.com it was not an F-35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And one day later, two A-10C Warthogs from the 57th Wing at Nellis crashed during what was called a routine training mission at the Nevada Test and Training Range. Both pilots ejected safely.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Defense News reporter Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds pilot was killed when his F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed over the Nevada Test and Training Range today at approximately 10:30 a.m. during a routine aerial demonstration training flight.  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5dLwe3Gs2A\">https:\/\/t.co\/5dLwe3Gs2A<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Thunderbirds (@AFThunderbirds) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AFThunderbirds\/status\/981743037733732352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday during a routine aerial demonstration training flight, Air Force officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["aviation-in-crisis","your-military","news"],"primary_category":"aviation-in-crisis"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[521,3320],"class_list":["post-24883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TEHWC44H3VEYXBBDMKRTS7SAJU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/04\/05\/air-force-thunderbirds-pilot-killed-in-f-16-crash-near-nellis-afb\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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