1. Bad decisions doom flight, report says
REPORT: An April crash that killed two experienced reservist pilots was the result of haste,
overconfidence and the earlier consumption of alcohol.
by Eric Williamson
Web posted Saturday, August 7, 2004
THE TWO EXPERIENCED military instructor pilots were hung over and in a hurry.
Capt. Judson "Jud" Brinson, 35, of Thomasville, was trying to keep an appointment with his
wife.
Brinson had been drinking the night before with others, including Capt. Thomas Lee Moore, 33,
of Valdosta, his best friend and the other Moody Air Force Base pilot in the T-6A Texan II plane
that April morning.
Brinson and Moore had stopped to spend the night in Savannah in the middle of a routine
training mission for which they earned required flight hours.
Cleared for takeoff from Runway 27 at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport, the pilots
rose sharply and performed a banking maneuver.
Then, something went wrong.
Their country's $4.2 million aircraft crashed into the airfield, disintegrating from nose to tail.
Both men died in the scatter of wreckage.
The federal Accident Investigation Board's official opinion on the April 3 crash, released to the
public late last month, cited "clear and convincing evidence" the deaths of Brinson and Moore
were the result of pilot error.
Investigators never determined conclusively which pilot was actually flying the two-man training
craft. The T-6A has dual controls.
The report suggests their experience with the aircraft may have led to overconfidence in their
behavior, which included skipping steps on a pre-flight checklist.
But that pattern of carelessness began the night before the accident, the report says.
The two men together had at least 18 drinks, including mixed drinks and shots, between 8 and 11
p.m., the report states.
Brinson and Moore were buddies who knew each other before joining the 39th Flying Training
Squadron. This was their first flight together to another Air Force base.

2. Brinson, a full-time pilot with Jet Blue Airlines, flew as a reservist one week a month and had "a
solid reputation as an aviator," the report says.
Those who knew him described him as "level-headed, skilled and disciplined."
Moore, a full-time reservist, is described similarly in the report: "His peers and supervisors
considered him to be a friendly, skilled and disciplined professional. He was well-liked and
considered a conservative pilot."
Meeting up with friends
At Moody, Lt. Col. Jonathan F. Wrinn received a call that Friday afternoon that the men had
arrived safely in Savannah, with no technical problems.
The pilots had been scheduled to fly to Charleston, but changed their itinerary.
Brinson had previously served in Savannah in the 165th Airlift Wing of the Guard, which has its
Combat Readiness Training Center at the Savannah airport.
Both men had friends here, so they planned to pause briefly for some social time.
Mutual friend Capt. Chadwick Q. Hilde of the Savannah airlift wing picked up Moore and
Brinson at Hawthorne Suites, where they were staying.
At 4:30 p.m., the group met friends Capt. Tommy Atkinson, another pilot with the 165th, and
Savannah air traffic tower employee LeAnn Christman at Vinnie Van Go-Go's restaurant.
Hilde's brother Justin, a civilian instructor for Flight Safety International in Savannah, arrived
later. The Hildes had known Moore since their childhood in Statesboro.
Along with dinner - two pizza slices and a salad - Brinson drank three domestic beers.
Moore had one slice, a salad and a bourbon and Coke. He had brought the drink with him.
They stayed about four hours.
After dinner, everyone walked through City Market to Sorry Charlie's, where they drank for
another three hours.
Brinson consumed between six and nine drinks there, including one martini, four to six 23-ounce
Guinness beers and one or two shots of bourbon, the report states.
Moore had eight to 10 drinks, including five to seven bourbon and Cokes and three shots of
bourbon.

3. The report notes, however, that neither man was regularly a heavy drinker, nor under unusual
stress.
That night before the crash, though, they cut loose a little.
Hilde recounted how Moore pressured the group to drink additional shots.
"(Moore) was persistent and he wanted to do them and I took and threw two or three shots over
my back," Hilde said. "After the first shot, Justin and Jud followed (my lead and), they did the
same thing.
"Lee saw me do that and kind of got upset, he got another shot and he came over and put his arm
around me and told me I was gonna do it and I did one shot out of respect for Lee."
Having gotten too rowdy, the group was asked to leave Sorry Charlie's by the doorman,
according to one witness.
The men got back to their hotel room before midnight.
The morning after
Moore and Brinson awoke at 7:50 a.m. and got ready in a rush.
Neither received the Air Force's required 10 hours of rest prior to flight.
They also violated what's known in military slang as the "bottle to throttle" rule.
Pilots are not supposed to consume alcohol within 12 hours of takeoff. The men ate a light
breakfast before heading to the airport. Brinson had a piece of raw cookie dough, while Moore
ate grits and eggs.
Hilde told investigators the pilots were leaving earlier than he thought they would, and
confirmed they were in a hurry.
Brinson was to meet his wife Julie around 12:30 p.m. to mark off land on the lot where they were
building a house in Thomasville. Shortly after that, he was supposed to play golf with his
brother.
"I have to go, otherwise I'll be in trouble," Brinson reportedly told Hilde.
The pilots also didn't follow protocol by checking for weather reports or briefs to airmen, or
filing a flight plan.
But everything checked out well on the plane and the men were cleared to fly, mechanics
reported.

4. Brinson and Moore also seemed to check out.
"They appeared fine to me," Hilde said.
Hilde took pictures of his friends with the digital camera he'd owned about a year and had used
in Iraq.
He wanted some pictures of them together, which he didn't have, and with the T-6A.
"Had they been impaired, I would never have taken pictures of them," Hilde stated. "I would
have waited in front of the airplane and I would not have let them take off.
"I think back and I wish I had done that so much today, keep them outside the 12-hour window."
Moore got into the plane and had a brief conversation with someone on a cell phone.
Brinson then took his position up front.
"The last thing I said was, when they said 'rails clear,' (meaning they were closing the cockpit) I
said, 'You all please be careful,' and then they said 'rails clear,'" Hilde recalled.
The T-6A Texan II
The Raytheon-constructed T-6A Texan II was phased in by the Air Force beginning in May
2000, replacing the T-37 Tweet.
Moody is among three Air Force bases using the T-6A, with no reported history of mechanical
errors leading to a crash.
The Savannah Morning News found only a handful of reports documenting recurring problems
with the plane model. All of them mentioned the attitude heading reference system, a component
of the plane's cockpit guidance equipment.
The computerized system acts as a gyroscope, helping pilots maintain their bearing relative to
the horizon while making complicated maneuvers up or down, left or right.
Typically, pilots rely on the system more during poor weather, but it is useful if a pilot becomes
disoriented, according to Maj. Trent Meyers, an instructor and evaluator with the 165th.
Investigators found no connection between the AHRS and the crash.
Only one other T-6A Texan II crash has been recorded during its relatively short service. Again,
pilot error was blamed.
In August 2000, a T-6A from Randolph Air Force Base crashed in southern San Antonio while
attempting to land. The airplane was being flown by a pilot who was transitioning from the

5. Tweets.
"The throttle in the T-6A is in the same place the flaps are in the T-37s," said Maj. Robert L.
Reed of 12th Flying Training Wing, Safety Division.
The pilot simply used the wrong control.
Reed is updating a pilots' textbook to include cautionary information about the April T-6A crash
here.
"Every five or six years, we learn this lesson again and again," Reed said regarding the pilots'
presumed overconfidence. As a pilot, "you're never as good as you think you are."
The crew in the San Antonio crash ejected safely. Moore and Brinson weren't so lucky.
The crash
Taking off to the west about 9:15 a.m., the pilots retracted their landing gear and flaps, leveling
off at 30 feet above the runway.
They sped up to 168 knots. The pilot working the controls pulled back on the stick and the nose
of the plane rose 37 degrees as they climbed.
They reached an altitude of 530 feet, but their speed had decreased drastically.
The plane was in a roll and nearly inverted.
"It's kind of like it got up on its back and just kind of slowed down," recalled Barry Coarsey, a
civilian station captain at the 165th fire department who witnessed the accident.
To him, it appeared the plane was in the middle of making a "U-turn" back toward the tower and
"lost either power or lift."
Having banked at 131 degrees, the report says, the pilots exceeded what is considered the
maximum safe angle of 90 degrees.
Now, at 131 knots, they were also below the minimum safe airspeed of 140 knots.
Those safety guidelines are for peacetime training.
The T-6A can push those limits, and experienced pilots know a stall can happen at any time,
under any conditions.
In this situation, the pilots were not able to apply stall recovery procedures, and they plunged
toward the ground.

6. Brinson hit the ejection switch three seconds before the plane crashed.
He was indeed ejected, but he was upside down and the parachute didn't open.
Moore, seated in the back of the plane, remained inside.
The ejection switch had not been set to the "both" position.
Lt. Daniel Duetermann, a helicopter pilot with the Coast Guard, took off with a crew just before
the T-6A lifted off.
Duetermann's group was on a pre-G-8 mission in the vicinity to scout out areas where a terrorist
might launch a surface-to-air missile.
When he saw the plane going down, he made a circle and landed the chopper. His group was the
first to respond to the crash site.
"I sent my flight mechanic and his sergeant out to the ejected air crew," Duetermann said. "They
walked over to (Brinson), or ran over to him, did take a pulse, neither one of them were EMTs to
my knowledge, but for the most part they received a thumbs down..."
He said flares began to go off from the back seat of the plane, forcing his crew back to the
helicopter for safety.
The aircraft, which was full of fuel at the time of takeoff, was encircled in a small ring of fire and
engulfed in thick black smoke.
Firefighters arrived seconds later and began foaming down the plane.
Tests and theories
Pathology and toxicology reports indicate Brinson's blood stream was clear of alcohol before
flying that day.
A blood sample could not be obtained from Moore, but based on the alcohol elimination rate for
someone his size, investigators say, the blood alcohol level would have been between 0 and .08.
Regardless of whether alcohol was fully metabolized, the report says, the pilots could have been
impaired by "post-alcohol" effects such as dizziness and diminished concentration.
"Existing medical literature is replete with evidence that drinkers can be compromised in flight
by post-alcohol impairment," the report says.
Lab work and interviews determined there was no evidence of other drug use by the pilots prior
to flight.

7. Assuming they were hungover, the situation may have been complicated by the pilots' maneuver.
Doubling back for a "touch and go," meaning the plane heads back to the runway and takes off
again, is not uncommon.
It was unclear to the investigators if the pilots were attempting anything more risky.
The Hilde brothers reported being told by Brinson and Moore that the men had performed at
least one stunt on the way to Savannah.
Brinson buzzed a family residence in Thomasville, flying low within breaks in a tree line.
Recounting the story, the men said they were told that it looked to those on the ground "like a
train coming out of a tunnel."
Telling the truth
The Savannah Morning News attempted to talk to sources close to the investigation. The report
is public, so all sources are at liberty to discuss the accident.
But those closest to Brinson and Moore located by the Morning News either declined to be
interviewed or did not return calls or answer e-mail requests.
Moore's widow, Amanda Moore, did not return calls seeking comment. Brinson's widow did
return a phone call, but declined to comment before consulting with an attorney.
Chad Hilde told investigators he was very worried about how his testimony might affect the
Brinson and Moore families.
"...my only concern is I don't want to say or do anything that's going to harm them," Hilde said,
prefacing his official statement. "(But) I realize I have to tell the truth."
He worried specifically about the widows' life insurance benefits. Brinson also left a young
daughter, Carly, behind.
Capt. David Simons, a spokesman for the 165th, said benefits loss is unlikely.
Simons said the level of negligence would have to be fairly extreme to result in such a loss.
Another part of Hilde's testimony seems to sum up best the effect the crash has had on those left
behind.
"I've never done this before," Hilde told investigators. "and I pray to God I never have to do it
again."
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8. The power of a hangover
Some of the effects a hangover could have on a pilot include:
- Lowered tolerance to gravitational pull
- Impaired attention and decreased ability to "multi-task"
- Decreased cognitive performance
- Decreased physical performance
- Decreased restfulness. Alcohol causes disrupted sleep.
- Impaired reaction time, reasoning, judgment and memory.
- Decreased hearing perception and dizziness due to inner ear effects.
Source: U.S. Air Force
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About the T-6A Texan II
The T-6A Texan II is a single-engine, two-seat primary trainer aircraft built on an all-aluminum
frame.
Produced by Raytheon Aircraft, the T-6A is a military trainer version of the company's
Beech/Pilatus PC-9 Mk II. Stepped-tandem seating in the single cockpit places one crew member
in front of the other. A single pilot may also fly the aircraft from the front seat.
A Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turbo-prop engine delivers 1,100 horsepower.
The aircraft is 33.3 feet long with a wingspan of 33.4 feet. Its tail height is 10.6 feet. Maximum
takeoff weight is 6,500 pounds.
The aircraft is fully aerobatic with a pressurized cabin. It features all digital avionics.