OCEAN CITY — While the U.S. Air Force has not yet officially confirmed a performance by the USAF Thunderbirds this weekend in the O.C. Air Show, everything is pointing toward the famed jet team streaking across the resort sky as planned after a recent stand down following a crash on June 2.
Air show enthusiasts have been holding their collective breath in the week or so following the crash of a USAF Thunderbirds F-16 jet near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado around 1 p.m. on June 2 following a performance at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, safely ejected after steering the jet away from any populated areas.
Following the June 2 crash, the USAF Thunderbirds were placed on stand down for an undetermined amount of time. The stand down is a standard procedure to give investigation officials time to gather the facts and ensure the continued safe operation of the aircraft and team.
Following the stand down, the Thunderbirds canceled their performance at Kirtland Air Force Base on June 4-5 in the days immediately following the crash, and also their scheduled performance at an air show in North Kingstown, Rhode Island last weekend. Their next scheduled performance is at the Ocean City Air Show this weekend.
However, there has been nothing official from the USAF Thunderbirds about performing at the O.C. Air Show this weekend. The Thunderbirds’ last official tweet on Twitter dated June 7 states, “the team’s participation in the Ocean City, Md. air show is yet to be determined.” A Thunderbirds Facebook post also dated June 7 states “during our stand down, we will continue flying practice demonstrations until we perform at our next air show, which will be determined at a later date.”
Those official responses appear to suggest the Thunderbirds’ performance at the O.C. Air Show this weekend is still up in the air, so to speak, but some official releases from the Town of Ocean City and the O.C. Air Show on Monday morning seem to suggest the Thunderbirds will perform as planned.
The town of Ocean City’s release states members of the U.S. Thunderbirds will make an appearance at Ocean City’s City Hall on Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and residents and visitors are encouraged to visit City Hall to meet the pilots. A short time later, the O.C. Air Show sent out a media advisory reporting the arrival times for the various demonstration teams at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Thursday.
The media advisory reports the first two USAF Thunderbird jets will arrive at Wallops at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, with four more Thunderbird jets arriving at Wallops at 4 p.m. The media advisory allots a 4:15 p.m. time frame for press plane-side interviews with the Thunderbird pilots at Wallops on Thursday.
Between the planned arrival of the jets at Wallops on Thursday and the meet-and-greet with the pilots scheduled for Friday at City Hall, everything points to a performance by the Thunderbirds at the O.C. Air Show this weekend as planned, but no official statement from the USAF Thunderbirds about the lifting of the stand down or the confirmed performance by the jet team has yet been announced.
