Officials release A-10 accident report

  • Published
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) --  Air Force investigators determined spatial disorientation was the likely cause of an A-10 Thunderbolt II crash 3.5 miles north of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on Feb. 25.

The pilot, Capt. Jonathan P. Scheer, was killed and the aircraft was destroyed.

Based on evidence obtained during the accident investigation, Brig. Gen. David J. Eichhorn, accident investigation board president, said he believes the accident was caused when the pilot became spatially disoriented and was unable to gain situational awareness until it was too late to either recover the aircraft or safely eject.

Captain Scheer was the instructor pilot and formation lead for a flight of four A-10s on a mission involving takeoffs and landings using night-vision goggles. The crash occurred two minutes after takeoff.

General Eichhorn said he also found evidence that weather and an unknown instrument malfunction may have contributed to the crash.

Weather conditions the night of the crash made it difficult to see the horizon, and other pilots said there was little or no horizon from which to reference the aircraft’s attitude. Without exterior references, because of darkness and weather, Captain Scheer had to depend almost completely on cockpit instruments.

Captain Scheer’s flight information was captured by an onboard data system. The board president said he believes he was also dealing with an unknown instrument problem since Captain Scheer’s behavior is consistent with a pilot dealing with a serious, disorienting issue.

These two contributing factors severely affected Captain Sheer’s ability to fly the aircraft using either outside references or his instruments and led to the spatial disorientation that caused the crash, investigators said.