Air Force Pauses All T-38 Trainer Flights, a Week After Alabama Crash

The Air Force on May 19 announced it has temporarily halted all T-38 Talon flights, a week after one of the decades-old trainer jets crashed.

The fleetwide operational pause, which the service said in a statement is being made “out of an abundance of caution,” will affect units within Air Education and Training Command, Air Combat Command, Air Force Materiel Command, and Air Force Global Strike Command. No aircraft other than T-38s are affected.

The decision follows the May 12 crash of a T-38 in Alabama, from which its two pilots safely ejected. Those Airmen and aircraft were assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss., and were flying a routine training mission when they determined they had to eject.

A safety investigation board is now reviewing the crash, as is standard after such mishaps.

The Air Force said in its May 19 statement that the halt to T-38 flights “ensures the continued safety of Air Force personnel and equipment involved in flying T-38 operations while the investigation progresses.”

Headquarters Air Force and the 14th could not immediately provide further details to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

It is not yet clear how long the pause may last. The Air Force said the grounded T-38s will be able to return to flight status after they are inspected and any necessary maintenance is finished. But the inspection process still has yet to be developed, and further engineering analysis is needed, the Air Force said. Those inspections could begin as early as this week.

It is not yet clear what the Air Force may be looking for with the inspections, but the fleetwide mandate could suggest the service is checking for underlying problems that exist across multiple aircraft.

Until aircraft return to flight, the Air Force said, crews will use simulators as much as possible to remain proficient and current in their aircraft.

The Air Force has flown the two-seat, supersonic T-38 trainer for about six decades, and roughly 475 remain in service. 

But the aging Talon fleet, mostly made up of T-38Cs, is growing increasingly out of date and difficult to maintain. T-38C readiness rates fell to 55.3 percent in 2024, the last year for which data is available.

This month’s crash was the first involving the Talon since 2022, when a bird strike led to a T-38 crash. There were also two fatal T-38 crashes in 2021.

The Air Force last grounded T-38s in July 2022, when flights were halted for nearly half the fleet due to concerns about potentially faulty ejection seat parts. The service’s F-35As and a few dozen T-6 Texans were also grounded at that time over the ejection seat concerns.

The T-38 was introduced in the 1960s to teach pilots how to fly third-generation jets, which are now all out of service. But USAF officials say it is limited in its ability to prepare pilots for fifth-generation jets, such as the F-35 and F-22 Raptor, leading the service to buy a new fleet of modernized T-7 Red Hawk trainer jets.