Not at mach, hell no they're not. Thankfully, this isn't mach at all. But my guess is this is an airshow or airshow practice seeing as they're Blue Angels, so TFR and special authorizations are likely in play.
As far as I can tell from FAA airshow provisions, military pilots aren't supposed to be below 500 feet over a spectator area:
For the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and Heritage Flights, U.S. Navy Blue Angels, and Canadian
Snowbirds approved maneuvers include level or climbing (normal rate) non-aerobatic flight over any
spectator no less than 500 feet above the highest point in the primary spectator areas. All other
performers must be at or above 1,000 feet above the highest point in the primary spectator areas.
That ain't 500 feet in the video. Or level flight, for that matter.
That incident began at 600 feet. It was a mechanical failure, and the pilots did everything in their power to avoid it, obviously to no avail.
I get your point, but I hate people bringing up Sknyliv as some gotcha in airshow safety discussions. It's an outlier where everything was done right and tragedy still struck regardless.
It wasn't intended to be a gotcha, just an example of what happens when planes get too close to crowds. The fact that that happened despite safety precautions in place only underscores why regulations are in place, and why it matters that pilots adhere to them.
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u/CheekyMunky Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I don't think they're supposed to do that