Today June 24 is the anniversary of the B-52 crash at Fairchild AFB. The crash was June 24 1994. All of the 4 crew members were killed at the point of impact. The reason for this crash was due to pilot error as the pilot maneuvered the aircraft over the limitations and lost control of it. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_aircraft_crash_at_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base

Wow, what a collossal failure of leadership!  The pilot, "Bud" Holland should have been grounded long before that event!  That guy had a history of wrecklessness.   

Video of crash
http://www.bofunk.com/video/786/huge_plane_goes_boom_boom.html

Very sad... and very preventable. Many airmen would not fly with Holland. He'd openly comitted several violations in the past, putting many people in danger.
  His FO on that flight had complained about him to the top brass, and also refused to let anyone under his command fly with Holland unless he was aboard. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop Holland that time...

I guess it was a classic case of croneyism- Lt. Col. Holland was a well-known hazard, but nothing was ever done about it.

Well, you can look at him either way...the safety hazard and an accident waiting to happen...or the dare devil pilot who took the Buff to the very edge (and beyond...his last flight) of its flight envelope.

I personally think he was one hell of a character and it was very unfortunate that he "messed up."

...records (and rules) are meant to be broken

That man flew his B-52 as if it was a F-16...you can't call him a bad pilot.

Stormtropper wrote on Jun 26^th, 2007 at 4:17pm:


And that is why he is..........well, dead!

Matt

Stormtropper wrote on Jun 26^th, 2007 at 4:17pm:


He routinely flew it outside of it's operating envelope with no benefit in return.  That's precicely why he was a bad pilot.  It's not like he was at Edwards, running tests.

beaky wrote on Jun 25^th, 2007 at 8:51pm:


A case of negligence on the part of those who handed him authority, and his peers for not taking more forceful action...

Welcome to SimV. Don't take the views in this thread as a blanket example of what you would find here. We are a friendly bunch really.


Matt

This will show you what kind of pilot he was and how he routinely violated regualtions.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQa4PpIkOZU

Amazing how even an experienced Air Force pilot can forget some of the basic rules of aerodynamics, namely the overbanking effect, where once you bank an aircraft past a certain angle, it will continue banking and roll you on your back.  Add in an aircraft with spoilerons for bank control and you get....

And even saying that you are being too kind.

Artemis08 wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2007 at 3:27pm:

THAT is leadership, and his is a name I won't soon forget.

It is incredibly uninformed to say "He flew the BUFF like a viper, so he was a good pilot."  Holland was both a bad pilot AND a bad airman (the latter being more important than the former).

The logical fallacy there has already been thoroughly vetted, but almost all posters have missed the single most important point--the BUFF is a CREWED aircraft.  The Viper isn't.  In the F-16, if you do something stupid, the ground should survive you just fine.  In the B-52, as aircraft commander, you are responsible not only for the integrity of the aircraft but the lives of the people within it. 

As a pilot, my single greatest fear isn't killing myself because I did something stupid.  Oh well, Darwin at work.  It's taking other people with me.  And it should have been LtCol Holland's also.