2018 Marine Midair Collision

[Hoops]

11 hours ago, JackMan said:

 

Man, that's unreal!  Given that Japan -- an island nation surrounded by vast oceans on all sides ---AND is a hotspot for hostilities AND given the number of US & Japanese military assets, I'd have thought both the US and the Japanese would have invested more into SAR.  At the very least, the US could lease a couple of Shinmaywa US-2 or even the older but probably still capable Shinmeiwa US-1A.  827 lives were saved by the US-1A since 1976 until the type was retired in 2017:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Meiwa_US-1A#Operational_history

 

 

 

Again, I'm not super smart on the laydown for Japanese coast guard SAR capabilities, but most peace time SAR immediate response is going to fall to them. In the time of conflict, the military will spool up and have crews/assets ready to go. That sort of posture is not sustainable for the military units that have other mission sets and requirements, however.

 

The US-2s are pretty cool to watch and bring a unique SAR capability. I find it particularly impressive to watch them take off and land with their amazing slow speed performance. It would be interesting if other countries had that as well, but it's just not going to happen. Japan has decided as an Island and sea going nation that it's a capability that it's worth it for them to invest in, but I think that they are an outlier in that regard.

 

10 hours ago, JackMan said:

 

I agree.  Reading the article I kept wondering about how they knew about the pilot's watch and other stuff that made it seem as if the authors had a front seat view of what happened.  I, too, suspect that they added some flair for dramatic purposes.

 

It's all in the command investigation. It is sobering read to be sure, but I'll admit that I didn't read all of the individual pieces of evidence, focusing more on the summaries and findings of fact. The redacted and released document is a whopping 1600 pages, and can be found here:

 

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6431155-KCJAGAMN-TOTAL.html

 

This is NOT the privileged safety investigation, but instead the command investigation.

 

Hoops

 

Edited February 1, 2020 by Hoops

[TaiidanTomcat]

14 hours ago, 11bee said:

If the picture in the linked article showed the “offense”, I’m truly SMH (especially since I believe this guy was actually in the back seat).  

 

On the other hand, you can never be too safe I suppose.   Some would argue that political correctness is ruining the military, I’d argue that the obsession with zero defect, safety uber alles is doing even more damage.   

 

That being said, I’d also argue that the 2018 midair and this silly event have nothing in common.   

 

Seeing as they kept making sure to paint the Bats in 2018 as a hot dog outfit with a cavalier attitude toward safety and selfies (Cardinal sins) I thought it would be worth a post