Cause released of Air Force Thunderbird crash near Colorado Springs

Geez, I'm kinda sad that it missed the guy that will have a Chicago library filled with redacted testimony and over turned E.O.s. I don't even have a doctor anymore. Just anecdotal.

My take from reading the whole article was that he should not have been able to without also pressing a lockout to the disengaged position. That lockout was stuck in the unlocked position by debris in the mechanism which should have been detected and removed during maintenance. The way I understand it (I have no personal experience flying this aircraft, so I'm simply repeating what I've been told by others), on approach an acrobatic team like this uses rigid procedures and aircraft settings, both for safety and for uniformity in their flying. Such procedures and settings get drilled into the pilots over hundreds of hours of practice, both simulated and in the air. This pilot followed those procedures to the letter. Unfortunately, it would seem part of those procedures and settings were to reduce throttle to the lockout stop, but the lockout stop was not there because it was stuck, so the pilot went past the normal stop position, not knowing it was stuck, which shut down the engine. Three times he repeated what had been drilled into him and three times the mechanical failure allowed shutting down the engine. You may want to fault him for repeating the same thing over and over again to the same result, but this is part of what military acrobatic flying is, the rigid following of specific procedures, without deviation.