The U.S. Air Force says it’s disciplining the four pilots who performed a flyover at a packed University of Iowa football game last year. After analyzing data, including video posted by fans on YouTube, investigators say the flyover was too low and too fast.
Seventy-thousand people were in Kinnick Stadium for the Ohio State game that November day. Just as the Hawkeye Marching Band concluded the National Anthem, the formation of four T-38 jets from Oklahoma’s Vance Air Force Base zoomed overhead.
Officials say the jets were 176 feet off the ground and they should’ve been at least a thousand feet up. They cleared the scoreboard by about 58 feet, at an altitude only 16 feet higher than the pressbox. Also, they weren’t to exceed about 350 miles an hour and reportedly hit 460.
The lead pilot is being removed from flight duty and was docked two months pay. The other three pilots were reprimanded.