Gen. Brown Considering Pilot Training Changes to Reduce Accidents

Last month, a 24-year-old Japan Air Self-Defense Force trainee and a 25-year-old US Air Force flight instructor died when their T38 trainer crashed nearly two miles from Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. The aircraft was based out of the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus AFB in Mississippi.

In fiscal 2020, the USAF had 72 aviation accidents, 13 of them causing injury or death. Twenty-nine of the accidents were designated Class A, in which aircraft are destroyed or total more than $2.5 million in damages, or where a person is killed or permanently, fully disabled.

USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. told the Air Force Association’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium last week that changes to the pilot curriculum are being considered.

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“Some of the incidents we’ve had have been in what I would call basic phases of flight, probably the most important phases of flight, which are takeoff and landing,” Brown said. “You can mess up … in the air, but if you don’t take off and land, you lose, potentially, that Airman, and that particular airplane. That’s what we’re focused on right now.”

Brown dealt with a rash of F22 landing problems during his tenure as commander of Pacific Air Forces. He suggested the Air Force is incorporating too much material into initial flight school, and that young pilots might spend more time on advanced aspects of flight once they reach their units.

“We pushed, in some cases, a lot of things into our early courses, our basic courses, so when they show up at their operational unit, they’re fully capable,” Brown said. “I think we may have pushed … a little bit too far. We need to spend more time on the basics so they have a good foundation.”

Gen. Brown has commanded a fighter squadron, the US Air Force Weapons School, two fighter wings and US Air Forces Central Command. He is a command pilot with more than 2,900 flying hours.

The day Brown made his remarks, a Mirage F1B adversary training aircraft owned by Airborne Tactical Advantage Company crashed off the end of the flight line at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.