Fantastic wrap up, this stings. 😔. With the mishaps we’re seeing, another aspect is the concept of doing more with less. Pilots are getting less experience in both UPT and their respective b course. More pilots were trying to be pushed through the system to account for a shortage, but came at the significant cost of experience. It’s immediately obvious with the younger pilots we have in the squadron now compared to even a few years ago not only when they go through mission qualification training (MQT) and their flight lead upgrades.

Nickel on the grass for Kage...

There's a video of him singing and playing his guitar for his new wife at Stars and Stripes online. He was a good musician - and by all accounts a high quality human being.

His brother lived in our neighborhood for a few years (actually the brother's wife was raised in that house and we have a close relationship with the family). He's an Army major now, graduated and instructed at West Point, flew Apaches and such in the sandbox. The whole Allen family is stellar in a way seldom seen. Kage's loss hit us all hard, he was outstanding in every way. They all are. Thanks for featuring this incident. I know it's the crash we're talking about but I'm glad to be reminded of Kage and the Allen family. They really are special people, all of them.

As a mishap survivor I can say training and experience (hours) make a huge difference in some of the mishaps. It did in mine. Prayers for his family.

As someone who lives in the UK I prayed for this pilot’s safe return. Such a tragic case - RIP Kenneth Allen Edit - just to back mover up on assets for the sortie - HMS Queen Elizabeth is a one of the UK new Aircraft Carriers

Thanks Mover, for this breakdown of the mishap report and especially your own opinion as an experienced fighter pilot. Myself I have been a WSO on TORNADO and have flown over the North Sea in crappy weather several times. As a young guy I flew with old guys who showed me how tricky it can be out there. Just grey in grey! As an experienced IWSO I flew with the young and non-experienced pilots in these kinds of missions and told them what to look for. 5000ft ASL with 10degree nose down? "LEVEL OFF"! Hitting the floor at 4000ft ? "Local Terminate". Man, I would have shouted "RECOVER,RECOVER,RECOVER" to Kage. It is so sad to see accidents happen in modern jets as they were happening in the 60´s single seaters F-84´s and F-104´s... Pity, everybody gets rid of WSO´s! They were the best life insurance for guys like Kage! I feel so sorry for his poor widow. What a terrifying phase of her life must that have been!

Aviation fans in the UK spent the whole time watching the SAR activity hoping for the best. Sad loss.

Thanks for sharing Mover. Three years at RAF Bentwaters we lost three Hog drivers-spatial-d/low altitude training. can only imaging trying to employ the Eagle with all of 64 hours of actual flight time. God rest Kage's sole--nickel on the grass brother...

I live very near to RAF Lakenheath and get to see these boys fly most days The community feel these losses deeply

My last unit held a piano burn for Kate. Stellar pilot who was taken was too early. RIP brother 🥃

I was in the middle of launching out one of our E-models here on Lakenheath when the jet went down. I didn’t know what was going on but my pilot said “Hey chief something real world just came up we gotta get out of here fast” So we pulled chocks and a few jets went up to go find him, they were carrying RECCE pods so I’m assuming that might have been able to help find the wreckage through the fog.

"150 something hours in the simulator -I don't count that..." Absolutely agree! Thanks, Mover, for this video, as always, your expert opinion is greatly valued.

I am glad USAF is now publishing AIB reports in a easier to read format than the ALL CAPS format we had in earlier times

Lakenheath was my first duty station as a crew chief (08-11). This hit really hard first hearing about it back in June. Condolences for his family.

I frequent RAF Lakenheath for work reasons and the community there is very close knit, even 6 months on it still sits heavy with some people there, and at Mildenhall just down the road. I see F-15Cs flying over my town all the time (I live 100 yards or so from the North Sea in Norfolk). They do exercises within sight of the town and it's interesting to watch, a free air show.

Another Hero lost. This young man died serving his Country, my Country. Prayers and many thanks to his family for "sharing" him with us. Nickel on the grass...💜🇺🇸

My young friend flew with Kage in the same group, reading his memories of him was very sad.

I use to watch those four F-15s train near my home all the time. Even watched them search for him. So sad.

Had my scanner on and “spotter” groups on FB ware full of concern (and respect) on that day. Kage was clearly an amazing individual who while capable of the task on paper As you rightly said “ran out of real life experience” any loss of life is hard... it was a tough one for military aviation (crews & enthusiasts) in here the uk. He was a rising star and won’t be forgotten about here! Nickel on the grass 🇺🇸🇬🇧

I've seen some hi-time pilot, great instrument pilots suffer from SD, especially at night. I've been there, to a point of almost puking. Your right-on as far as this kid being green for this mission. The squad safety officer should have some visibilty minimum weather ops for low-time (in type), low airspace operations. Hind sight is 20/20! The summer haze (aka scud) can be disorientating especially over water. Unfortunately, this weather /vis is the norm in mid-summer ops on the coast. This is a tough loss that could have been easily avoided. IMHO. I always tried to learn something from the monthly safety magazine laying around the lounge..... to a point I'd spook myself between missions..... fear is a great co-pilot sometimes.

We had a serious incident on a check flight for a hanger queen'd 130. Part of the maintenance that was done a few weeks prior was a replacement and ops check of the pitot tube. The plane actually sat there for some time after being put together while a qualified pilot returned to perform the test flight. I remember the annoyance that occurred due to this situation and having a plane just sitting there unable to be used. Well, the pilot came back and the flight went well enough until they activated the autopilot. 40 degrees nose down and from 25k to 10k feet before the pilot could regain control. Turned out a fucking cricket crawled into the new pitot tube sometime after the checks were completed and died in there-- utterly blocking the airflow and throwing the readings way off. That was a stark reminder of why we don't cut corners regarding checks and certs.

Thank you for recording these detailed reviews of AIBs. Reid Hendricks says, "The lessons that we learn are written on the tombstones of others." No death should be in vain.

A very thorough review of this mishap. That day a video channel was doing a live stream from the RAF Lakenheath viewing area and I saw the MS jets leave on their mission. Initially there was brief wild speculation that a D model had been lost simply as it was the only jet departing non burner but then some Dutch air band enthusiasts revealed it was jet 176 . I , like many others that day watched the huge search effort on the various flight radar apps just hoping against hope that the pilot would be safely recovered. Sadly it was not to be. The majority of us Brits love having the USAFE presence in our country and I have been on several base visits to Lakenheath and the personnel go out of their way to make sure you have a great visit. Additionally I like to spend a few hours up at the viewing area at LN and it is always packed with people of all ages watching the jets . It’s for these reasons I think that many of us were really saddened by the events that day , we know it’s dangerous and not a game but it still hits home. RIP Kage . His family , friends and squadron mates remain in my thoughts.

I love seeing the Eagle boys in our Lincolnshire skies in the UK. This was a sad day for us also and I wish the best for his family. Thank you for explaining the situation clearly.

Finding this on the 3 year anniversary. Worked on the bleed air issue that you mentioned. Hearing “ACFT down” over the maintenance net sent a wave of grief over all of us. Definitely sometime we won’t forget, Kage will forever be with the 493rd. Mors Inimicis!

I’m not a pilot, I’m an electrician. I love the way u break down vids. It can relate to a lot of fields. But man your out here saving lives with your knowledge, respect brother

I've said it before on videos like this, but I want to again thank you for taking the time, and making the personal effort, to cover and explain these incidents. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to read these, let alone explain them to us laymen. My heart goes out to Lt Allen's family, his squadmates, his friends, and every single person touched by this, personally or professionally.

I debriefed the CV pilots that went to go look for him, very sad day for everyone.

Thank you Mover. Some of these mishap videos are hard to watch. But by you reviewing and explaining the AIB reports, it really helps us understand what really happens during these tragic events. I appreciate you taking the time and honoring this great man.

Thank you Mover for handling this with such class and compassion. I remember reading about this in the paper before following your channel, hoping for a day or so that he'd be found and then going in and telling coworkers that I read that he'd passed away.

Sad and tragic to lose anybody especially in training. In these breakdowns/debriefs I always remember your F18 Fini Flight video I believe where you made the remark to the effect the worst day for a fighter pilot is going to the aircraft knowing it’s your last flight or the day you go to the aircraft not realizing it’s going to be your last flight. God bless you, your family, and my thoughts and prayers are with both.

These AIB presentation vlogs are very eye opening, your analysis seemed to be right on and cut to the quick that we had a series of unfortunate events that led to an avoidable loss. Thanks for your Service and RIP Kage.

I agree with your assessment. I had 3 assignments in Europe as a young fighter pilot including my first one out of RTU. Weather in Europe is very different than in the US. In the US, clouds usually have very well defined and uniform tops and bottoms with good visibility in between any cloud layers. In Europe and especially over the North Sea, the clouds are layered and the tops and bottoms are ragged, vary quite a bit and many times the horizon is not discernible. I remember one flight where I was performing a radar trail departure in the F-5E which had only a radar that was designed primarily for radar ranging for the gun and required a lot of manual effort on the part of the pilot to perform a radar trail departure. The SID (Standard Instrument Departure) required an immediate Left turn and I was attempting to find the lead aircraft adjusting the radar elevation control wheel near the throttles. About this time the flight lead requested and was granted a Right turn to proceed direct to RAF Bentwaters. I attempted to follow this reversal turn and moments later checked my ADI and found that I was in a 60° right bank approximately 15° nose low. I immediately abandoned all attempts to do a radar trail and followed him using Dead Reckoning. The next time I saw my flight lead was on the ground at Bentwaters. That could have been fatal if I had not had over 500 hours flying in the F-4 in Germany.

I love these keep them coming they need a category in your bank as well of just ARB reviews.

Thank you Mover. Bringing us up on this in the class way you do.

Retired Army 60 SP here and I thank you for this solid roll up. Most sincere condolences for LT Allen's family. And yes - we've lost another of the best and brightest, and I must say that back in the day most of us were put in a situation that demanded a little more than our experience could cover. I certainly was, and it was sheer dumb luck that allowed us to live to see another day. My Mom would say "you had an angel sitting on your shoulder". Maybe so. I'm guessing that angel was just as scared shitless as I was (usually after the fact). RIP LT. God bless your family.

I really appreciate the balanced, professional approach you take to these reports, even while using your personal experience to set context.

My "like" is only to acknowledge the good work you've done in presenting this. This is how we learn.

I've had spatial disorientation in IMC. Felt like I was flipping backwards, but the instruments told me I was making a standard rate climbing turn. It's a trip. RIP Kenneth Allen

Thank you for the analysis and sharing your point of view. It's not a place to point fingers because it's too easy but those reports are made to make sure this kind of situation doesn't happen again. I pray for his family and friends. 😔

Very informative! My hope is lessons learned this never happens again! Thoughts and prayers to his Family !

Fascinating, well presented and a reminder of the risks you guys take. As an Englishman sleeping under the cover of your protection, thank you.

Thanks for the honest, thorough assessment. Sad to see/hear of people getting pushed beyond their limits when there is no need to do so at that time.

Thanks for covering this stuff, I know it's a difficult topic, but it's so good to find the facts without hyperbole or sensationalism. Even us non military pilots can learn lessons from these sort of reports.

How many of those 64 hours were in IMC? Very sad.

Thank you for putting together such and excellent review. Your opinions stated at the end show tremendous understanding of the situation, and mean more than the rest. Kage was such a high performer, that it was easy to forget his lack of experience. Experience is necessary in high risk situations, and Kage was set up to fail. The world lost one of its Noble Ones that day.

Condolences from Sweden. Thanks for your wisdom as well.

Hey moover, really enjoying your channel it's great to have someone who's been there and done that to go over these mishaps in detail. That said, if I may make make a humble suggestion in the interest of making your content more compelling it would be to consider not mentioning the final report findings/official cause of these mishap reports at the beginning before you've gone over the details. I think you'll gain a more captive audience this way and imo it just makes the presentation more interesting.

KZfaq is fantastic: To have your wonderful analysis of this trajic accident is so informative. When you spoke about pulling 8G and hitting the beeper and you mimicked the pilot, that was EXACTLY what happened. Speaking personally I only wish that I had KZfaq and your analysis in 1988 when I was doing my basic flight training with the RAF, what a huge advantage the young pilots of today have over us old crusty analogue pilots of yester year. Thank you, great channel.

I remember I just got done redballing a e-model, when I got on the truck and the Expediter told me that gold might have an jet down. Thank you for doing this! I felt bad for the crew chief who launched him out, he was very new to the line.

I was working on the F-15E models at RAF Lakenheath when I heard about the accident. All of us were heart broken and shocked when we heard of the crash and the death of Kage.

Thank you Mover for breaking this down and adding your own perspective over and beyond the official report. All you guys are heros and as a UK citizen I want to express my gratitude and sympathy for what Kage and so many before and like him have done for all our freedoms.

Thanks “Mover” for bringing the human aspect to light. I am not a veteran, and have not served but I do work for Pratt Whitney and do feel a link with you heroes. I guess I never realized how incredible these men and women are and how much hard work it takes to do what you do. He died doing what he loved to do and feel pride that people like “Kage” are up there protecting us at home. On behalf of my P&W family, to yours, may he Rest In Peace.

Absolutely Spot on review. Great as usual C.W.

Canadian viewer. Non pilot but found your channel by chance. In listening to your review and presentation on this unfortunate accident and loss of life, it sounds like it was the Perfect Storm for this to occur.

I'm sure these are very difficult for you to do. I appreciate you going through it for the benefit of us watching.

An honest and solid review. 🇺🇸 God Bless Kage and his team mates.

I really enjoy these break downs. Been waiting on the south Dakota bird that crashed in California. Hopefully you can do that soon

No matter how often I have seen, read or heard these spatial disorientation accidents, they remain always very painful to hear. Rest in peace.

Great analysis, so sad but true he was in over his head and didn't realize it until it was too late.

God bless that noble young man, receive him, and comfort his family, in Jesus's name, amen.

These guys flew out just 30 minutes from me, remember seeing this come up in a flash news support. Everyone in the local area was hoping for the very best

It was really thick fog that day - at least where I live inland. The fog here cleared during the day but the TV cameras at the coast were still showing a lot of fog

Wow.... No words just moving that fast.... little visibility. Love and respect to him and family

Really great analysis. I flew in another Air Force and manoeuvring between cloud layers with a low cloud base is so demanding and easy to get disorientated (cloud layers are often not parallel to the horizon). What a tragedy to lose a great guy with obviously so much potential. I agree with you as I think the system has let him down here.

RIP to Kage. Always tough to hear of a loss of aircrew. Still very good to analyze and try to learn from these mishaps. Also, very cool to hear ACMI is still being used. My father designed that system for Cubic Corp back in the 1970s, and put the first system into the Chocolate Mountains Bombing Range at MCAS Yuma..

So sorry for the loss of our pilot. It really hurts when we lose them in training. We need to do better by these young men and women serving. Provide more training. RIP Kage

Spatial disorientation is the cause for many crashes. This was tragic for all involved. A toast. 🍻🇺🇸 Thank you Mover for the explanation!

I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath for 9 years and helped transition to the F15’s (I was too senior to transition myself) and a long time member of the 493TFS. Sorry to hear of his loss and wish the family my condolences.

Good job on covering all of the details Mover. If you ever decide to have a meet and greet or anything here in Louisiana let me know i live here now as well. ive been busy lately but now im about to start reading your books. Any recommendation on which one to start with?

Sorry for your loss.

thank you for this overview Mover. How sad for the family.

Like you've said before it's the Swiss cheese effect resulting in trajety. Multiple things lining up causing this mishap. The absolute best result now is to learn valuable lessons so it doesn't happen again. RIP brother and thank you for your service and contribution!

Very sad loss. You did a great job putting me in this young mans seat and I felt his need to press on.What got to me was this young fighter pilot had only been flying for a total of about 270 hours which isn’t enough to build strong habits or “air sense”. You can get all the warnings in training but when you get spatially disoriented at night in the weather you see the elephant and never forget it. It is too bad that the fighter candidates can’t get an extra 100 or so hours doing fighter stuff in a T-38 before they go to real fighter school.

I was F-14s for two tours, did a lot of ACM / BFM and familiar with the Rules and safety and such. In training, you have an artificial "hard" deck of anywhere from 5000 to 10,000 feet, or as appropriate, to allow margin for making mistakes with nose attitude. Our son was Hornet driver on both coasts, and he had an Oceana buddy who somehow got the nose buried and had to make a very high-speed ejection (500 knots plus, I believe) at low altitude. He had a lot of physical limb flail injuries and took a very long time to recover. Situational awareness as single-pilot is key while conducting such training, which is needed and very valuable, but has high-risk maneuvering that can be deadly, as we see here. His impact with the water was obviously non-survivable, for such a talented AF aviator. RIP.

There are many similarities between this accident and the F-16 Shaw accident that was recently reviewed here. Are too many corners being cut to increase pilot production? This report did not go deep enough to look at the reasons behind the reasons..

Totally agree with your conclusion....very sad and very preventable

... Outstanding! man ... my condolences. ... 'revelle' for him in his life ...and remember him well ...

Out of all of this, your Opinion is more valuable than the report . Yes the facts are there and the report is thorough and UN-biased, but the truth in your assessment I think is more important than all that. Your Opinion is what the people allowing pilots with low hours, non in jet experience in IMC etc. and all the cut backs with funds should be reading. Flying in IMC kills people and even the best trained. Great review.

150 hrs sim tine, 60+ hrs real flight time. Absurd how cutting costs (and other criteria) supersedes the importance of a military's life and often leads to tragedy and loss of costly equipment. Mind-boggling.. Missed this one. Good take, Mover , as usual.

I think the 2nd half of the video was probably the most important part. Well said.

I live near Lakenheath. Always tough when we hear a local USAFer goes down. My cousin has done two stints in Eagles at Lakenheath.

What a shame, that such an outstanding individual had to die so young.

Man, I used to love watching yall take off at Balad from the roof of the CP....good times.

Thanks Mover for the detailed explanation. This incident, and tragic loss of a pilot just goes to show how our military pilots extensively train in order to protect our freedom that we all enjoy. God bless them all for their service. Cheers

I was an aircraft electrician at the Heath from 1969 to 1972. While there we lost six F-100s. Including three pilots, two in the UK and one in Spain.

In my opinion this incident is particularly relatable. It’s a situation that anyone who’s flown a flight simulator has been in at least once. Diving after a bandit or a ground target and the ground comes up quicker than you think it will. The difference is Simulators have reset buttons. Or you click “return to hangar.”

Terribly low hours... accidents usually happen around the 2 year mark when your confidence is high but your experience is low... a high price to pay... hope they do something about those risk assessments..

Hearing these are always saddening. But it is still very informative for everyone to learn from. Especially for other pilots and officers involved in risk management and mission planning

Good vid, thanks. It is a tough one. I'm sure fighter pilots have a similar mentality to professional sports people in that they train hard and they play/ fight hard. They train just as if they were in a real situation to be more prepared for that real situation. I have to agree that 64 hours does not sound like enough to be doing BFM engagements in IMC. RIP Kage.

Great analysis...Thanks!

I watched the search and rescue efforts off the coast. Tragic. Many Brits were saddened by his loss.

Seeing the missing man formation, even just a video of it, is gut wrenching every time. Nickel on the grass buddy.

Lesson I learned from this mishap: Don't think just because you're in a Fighter jet that dogfighting comes first. Before anything, fly the plane.

The thing that pains me the most about these incidents is reading how young these guys are. They are just starting in life only to have it prematurely snuffed out.

Such a sad story and so easy to avoid with your mind set, i hope they will adjust the trainings rules, as after the formation landing mishap.

I'm stationed at RAF Mildenhall (which is about 10 minutes down the road and is also a US base) so this was crazy to hear at the time with it being someone from the base down the road... RIP brother.

I went through SERE during the same time he did but was a class behind. Crazy to know we crossed passed. Blue Skies Kage.

One of the ironies of being a really good pilot is it instills confidence in the leaders that you can "handle it." Flight leaders/instructors can be easily lulled into allowing or pushing a relatively inexperienced pilot to get in over his/her head. I've done it myself - more than once...