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Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by dnautics on Monday May 18, 2026 @12:45AM (#48175670)
the pilots need to fly <N> hours to keep their pilot rating anyways.

So aside from the slightly elevated risk to the civilian observers, and the occasional risk due to maneuvers (I think they doing something particularly showy in this case?), the extra cost to the taxpayer do this is ~nil.

Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by lostlogin on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:09AM (#48176364)
What sort of hours do you log for a crash? Does it end when the ejection starts, or feet-on/the/ground?
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by watchful_moose on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:33AM (#48176526)
if the pilot doesn't have their hands on the stick flying the plane, i don't think those hours (... less than single digit minutes?) count.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by hugh-avherald on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:32AM (#48176518)
When the plane comes to rest on the ground.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by userbinator on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:51AM (#48176633)
...or perhaps the last piece of it.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by fransje26 on Monday May 18, 2026 @04:53AM (#48176990)
Every landing you can walk away from is a good landing.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by SV_BubbleTime on Monday May 18, 2026 @01:32AM (#48175888)
There are two expensive holes in the ground that do not support your supposition.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by defrost on Monday May 18, 2026 @01:35AM (#48175907)
Only if there's a significant difference in risk between training flight and air show flight.

Otherwise there's always a near constant ever present risk of uncontrolled unintended landings with expensive repair and replacement costs.

Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by Gud on Monday May 18, 2026 @01:49AM (#48175973)
That’s a pretty big “only”.

Airplanes normally don’t fly so close.

Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by tedggh on Monday May 18, 2026 @02:27AM (#48176186)
There are many situations in real combat where pilots need to fly even closer than typical air show formations, like refueling or escorting other aircraft. So close formation flying is a fundamental skill for a pilot. Sure, we can minimize risk by not using certain aircraft and close formations during airshows, but pilots will still need to train and execute missions using high(er) risk maneuvers. Also air shows are probably not the largest portion of flight time for a pilot.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by hvb2 on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:10AM (#48176369)
Formation flying usually involves getting close and then 'just' maintaining distance. This has nothing to do with formation flying, this is acrobatics, different ballgame
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by cortesoft on Monday May 18, 2026 @02:03AM (#48176048)
Fighter jets in training probably do?
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by Gud on Monday May 18, 2026 @03:17AM (#48176406)
Doubtful there is any acrobatic training like this for the regular fighter pilot.
Re:Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, ... by dnautics on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @10:24AM (#48193707)
You don't need to do some rigorous searching to find that military jet planes do not need an airshow to crash. Just search f-35 crash