Thank you, Troy.

Air Force completes probe into Luke pilot's death
Report reveals Maj. Troy Gilbert was killed by insurgents

View report

Air Force officials completed an investigation of the Nov. 27 F-16C Fighting Falcon accident, which resulted in the death of pilot Maj. Troy Gilbert, who was stationed at Luke Air Force Base.

The accident investigation board report released Monday by Air Combat Command stated Gilbert led a flight of two F-16s in an aerial combat mission near Taji, Iraq, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.

On the ground, insurgents were unleashing truck-mounted heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire and mortars to attack Coalition troops, the report states. In addition, a downed Army helicopter crew was in danger of being overrun.

The report stated Gilbert engaged the insurgents, launching a strafing attack against enemy vehicles, striking a truck with the F-16's 20-millimeter Gatling gun.

Gilbert then conducted a second strafing pass from an extremely low altitude that was not recoverable, crashing into the ground. He died immediately on impact.

"Operating in a dynamic and stressful environment, Gilbert's motivation to succeed helped save the lives of the helicopter crew and other Coalition ground forces," said Brig. Gen. David Goldfein, president of the accident investigation board.

The official cause of the accident was Gilbert's "channelized attention manifested by his desire to maintain a constant visual positive identification of targeted enemy vehicles and subsequent target fixation on these vehicles while they were traveling at a high rate of speed," the report stated. The two factors, when combined, caused Gilbert to "begin, and then press his attack below a recoverable altitude."

Gilbert deployed in Sept. 2006 from Luke, to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad Air Base in Iraq. He was assigned as the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group chief of standardization and evaluation. On the day of the accident, he was flying with the 524th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron.

The aircraft was assigned to the 524th EFS deployed from Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. The $23.2 million aircraft was destroyed on impact.