By CHRIS ONSTOTT
The U.S. Air Force reacted to last week’s recent string of accidents, which left 13 airmen dead, by grounding training missions for all combat aircraft under the control of the Air Combat Command division of the Air Force.
The stand down, which grounded more than 1000 combat aircraft and affects about 100,000 Air Force personel, including the 388th fighter wing at Hill Air Force Base, came in response to an unprecedented directive by U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen. The directive required that all branches of the military take a stand down day this week to evaluate safety procedures.
Air Combat Command Commander General Richard E. Hawley said Air Force elected to take the stand down Monday rather than Friday with the rest of the Air Force, in reaction to the B-1 fighter that went down last Friday in Montana.
“In a tragic accident, we lost four fine airmen who were part of our family,” Colonel Ronald Rand, director of public affairs for the Air Combat Command of the U.S. Air Force, said.
“General Hawley felt that the stand down would have more meaning and people would take it more seriously because it would be directly linked to that tragic accident,” he said.
According to Rand, all those stationed at 18 bases and units at nine other bases affected by the stand down will take part in improving safety procedures through group discussion and classroom training. Although most all combat aircraft will be affected by the stand down, necessary flights such as those conducted to enforce no-fly-zones will carry on as scheduled.
“We are trying to focus on safety from a ground level,” Rand said, “We are trying to put the focus of these discussions in examining the risks that they deal with and finding ways to mitigate those risks.”
Although the six accidents that took place last week was unheard of in the military, the accidents were rather typical, Rand said.
“I can’t remember when we had a string of accidents like that,” Rand said. “But it was typical in that each accident was different in nature. For some reason accidents tend to occur in clusters.”
According to Colonel Maurice L. Stocks, formerly the Director of Personal for the Air Combat Command for the U.S. Air Force and who is currently Professor of aerospace studies and commander of Air Force ROTC detachment 855 at BYU, it is important to put the accidents in the proper perspective.
“Although the recent series of accidents is unfortunate, our overall accident rate is as low or lower than it has been in previous years,” Stocks said.
Although this stand down was called under special circumstances, scheduled stand down days are a common practice in the military.
“We generally take two stand down days a year to evaluate safety procedures,” Rand said.
According to Stocks normal stand down days are used to instruct and also buoy moral and interest of the troops in safety. They often end with a picnic or some other activity to put a positive tone to them. This stand down day is expected to be conducted more seriously to place an emphasis on it, said Stocks.
The rest of the U.S. Air Force is expected to stand down Friday.
