Feds Blame Pilot Error, Lack of Oversight in Marine's Death

Feds Blame Pilot Error, Lack of Oversight in Marine's Death
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX
By BOB CHRISTIE
May 25, 2016

FILE - This March 11, 2015 file photo officials check the scene of a T-59 Hawk aircraft crash at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz. In a report released Wednesday,

Federal investigators blame the Marine Corps, the Air Force and the pilot and operator of a privately-owned military jet for the death of a Marine killed last year when the jet crashed into his truck in Arizona.

The National Transportation Safety Board report said the pilot of the BAE Systems Hawk jet took off too early, noting that he lifted off while traveling more than 10 mph below normal takeoff speed on March 11, 2015. The British-built jet flying on a mission for the Air Force wobbled, veered off the left side of the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma runway and eventually hit a pickup occupied by Lance Cpl. Anthony T. DuBeau. The 23-year-old from Kenosha, Wisconsin, was providing safety oversight for a construction crew working alongside the runway.

The pilot, an active-duty Air National Guard A-10 pilot flying as a contractor for Quincy, Illinois-based Air USA, Inc., told investigators the aircraft's nose "became light" as he approached takeoff speed.
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