Six pilots & three new to the postions, anyone surprised at the outcome? Also, nice waste of taxpayers dollars. They're going to have crashes with their maneuvers, so why endanger local people's lives & homes.
I am surprised, yes. They take the best pilots in the Navy and Marines. This isn't like putting a pimply-faced high school senior, who just finished his check ride in a Cessna, into an F-18.
As for the waste of taxpayers dollars, the entire governmental process is a waste of money. Every bill contains enough pork to keep Rosie O'Donnell fed for years. At least with the Blue Angels, folks can take their families out to see them, to show some pride in the armed forces, and quite frankly, to see some amazing pilots do amazing things. That sure beats paying into an invisible fund in April, not knowing where exactly the money goes.
And finally, the Blue Angels, and generally the U.S. aerobatic teams, are safe. The Blue Angels existed since 1946, except for a hiatus during the Korean War. From a brief yet pretty thorough search, it appears that 24 or 25 pilots have been killed, but never a civilian. I found an old statistics list that stated about 600 pilots are killed in general aviation crashes per year, and with those, 14 collateral deaths. In comparison, drunk drivers kill 17,000 and firearms 35,000. So, not only are they comparatively safe, but on this logic, if going by the "endangerment" factor, the government better resurrect the Eighteenth Amendment and work on reinterpreting the Second.
