…With Details From Surviving Pilots

The T-37 pilots had completed a training session and were on their way back to Sheppard Air Force Base, in Texas. They contacted USAF Radar Approach Control and were told they had radar contact. They descended to 5,000 feet and leveled off at 200 knots, the NTSB said. After leveling off from the descent, the T-37 instructor took control and briefly scanned the student’s altimeter on the left side of the panel, according to standard practice. As he was turning back to the right, he told the NTSB he saw a “high visibility yellow airplane.” The student pilot said that as the instructor took control, he scanned outside the airplane to the left, and started to look back to the right when he saw the yellow Air Tractor heading toward the right side of the T-37. The Air Force pilots said they felt a spinning motion and rolled inverted, and then ejected from the airplane. If the results of the investigation determine that no rules or procedures were broken in the process of a man’s death and the destruction of two aircraft, perhaps it will be determined there is need to change the rules or procedures. We’ll let you know.