A fighter pilot who roared so low over a crowded beach that chairs and umbrellas were blown into the air will face no disciplinary action.
On Thursday, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said on X that a flight debrief had concluded with “No reprimands. No firings. No problem” following Wednesday morning’s incident, in which one spectator said she feared she would be “taken out” by the aircraft.
The Blue Angels jet was performing a flyby during a “Breakfast with the Blues” event at Florida’s Pensacola Beach, on the Gulf Coast barrier island of Santa Rosa, when footage showed it passing at an unusually low altitude.
The squadron initially said in a statement that the safety of spectators, the community, and pilots remained its “highest priority” and that leadership was conducting “a thorough safety review.”
“During an arrival maneuver, an aircraft flew lower than standard profiles, resulting in a disturbance on the beach that affected civilian chairs and umbrellas,” the Blue Angels said in a statement.
Yet members of the Trump administration were quick to celebrate the flyover despite the safety concerns it sparked.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell posted an image of the F/A-18 Super Hornet on Thursday with the message, “Carry on Patriots.” An official White House account also shared a photo taken during the low pass, captioning it, “It’s okay to love America.”
Cao similarly struck a patriotic tone, captioning a video of the jet, “That’s the sound of Freedom!” as he announced that no one would face disciplinary action.
“I would come back in and have words with that individual,” John “JV” Venable, a retired colonel who formerly commanded the Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s elite demonstration squadron, told The Washington Post, saying the viral video of the Blue Angels jet appeared to warrant an investigation.
“I would … say, ‘Hey, you need to bump up your altitudes. You need to be more cognizant of where you are,’” Venable said. He added that military flyovers are generally expected to remain 500 feet above people on the ground.
The beach flyover is the latest in a string of incidents involving military aircraft that have sparked safety concerns, with those involved rarely facing consequences.
On July 4, eight South Carolina National Guard Apache pilots were suspended after flying their helicopters at a low altitude just a few hundred feet from the shoreline during the “Salute to the Shore” flyover along the state’s coast.
The suspensions were short-lived, however, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth intervened on X, writing, “We’ll fix this,” and reversed the disciplinary action typically handled by military commanders.
In April, the U.S. Army suspended the crew of two helicopters after they performed a flyover near MAGA rocker Kid Rock’s home, but Hegseth soon stepped in with a message nearly identical to Cao’s Thursday post. “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots,” Hegseth wrote on X, reversing the disciplinary action.
“I’ve been coming for 10 years and I’ve never seen a pass like that in my life,” Ashley Korn, a spectator at Wednesday morning’s flyover, told North Florida ABC affiliate WEAR-TV. “I literally thought we were going to be taken out by Blue Angels, but it was amazing,” she added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon and the Blue Angels for comment.
