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Navy's Ruling on Low Fly GA Tech Game Pilots Too Harsh?
According to several media reports, two Navy pilots flying F/A-18 Super Hornets, flew a couple hundred feet above Bobby Dodd Stadium last November, just before a Georgia Tech football game. While it is a tradition to fly the planes above the stadium following the national anthem, Navy requires that flyovers stay over 1,000 feet from the ground. Apparently pilots Lt. Cmdr. Marc Fryman and Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Condon, both Georgia Tech graduates, simply made a slight miscalculation in flight height, and the incident cost them both their careers as naval aviators. Both pilots were permanently reassigned to non-flying positions.Fryman's family tells the AJC that he was upset about the incident and reported it immediately after landing. "He would never intentionally put his career or lives on the line to give 'a good show.'" In the Navy Times, Rear Adm. R.J. O'Hanlon advises that 'despite his spotless record, his complacent, passive response to a major altitude transgression is unforgivable in my view'. Fryman's family was not satisfied with the decision. After 2,500 hours of service to the Navy, seven medals, and countless operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, his family see's him as nothing short of a hero. Fryman graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and was the top jet pilot in his Navy flight class. The decorated fighter pilot is now about to leave for his third assignment in the Middle East, a one year deployment in June. His family tells the AJC, We are astounded by the fact that he still remains grateful of heart to serve in whatever capacity his career takes him -- even if that means he can never fly for the Navy again. We see that as a heart-wrenching consequence of this incident." video Posted by: Beavis 2010-03-23 |
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