On the day their fallen pilot's body was flown home, the Navy's elite flight demonstration team announced they have canceled two more June appearances while they take an operational pause.
In the wake of the Thursday crash that killed their No. 6 pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, the Blue Angels will miss the Syracuse International Air Sshow in New York on June 11 and 12 and the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Ohio on June 18 and 19, according to a Tuesday Navy release.
"We should know more next week about how long the operational pause is expected to last," Cmdr. Jeannie Groeneveld, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Forces, told Navy Times.
The Navy's investigation into the crash, which occurred just after takeoff during an air show practice, is ongoing, she said, but the squadron won't have to wait for it to wrap up to start flying again.
"The Navy Flight Demonstration Team, in coordination with [Naval Air Training Command]CNATRA, will make a determination of when they deem it is safe to resume flying and will send a request to the Air Boss [Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker] for approval at that time," she added.
To fill in, the Navy has offered up its Tactical Demonstration Team to perform in place of the Blue Angels. The TACDEMOs, as they're known, is an F/A-18 Hornet demonstration teams made up of aviators from the VFA-122 "Flying Eagles" and the VFA-106 "Gladiators," the Navy's West and East-Coast Hornet fleet replacement squadrons.
The Blue Angels were scheduled to honor Kuss' memory Tuesday evening in a Pensacola, Florida, flyover by the C-130 Fat Albert transport plane carrying his remains back to the team's headquarters.
"Blue Angels Lead Solo Ryan Chamberlain will lead Fat Albert in a flyover of Palofox Street in downtown Pensacola, from north to south, then over Pensacola Beach, from east to west, and lastly, over Perdido Key before landing at Forest Sherman Field, home of the Blue Angels," the team announced Tuesday on its social media pages.
A memorial for Kuss is scheduled for Thursday at the Naval Air Station Pensacola chapel.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
