Acting Navy Secretary Announces ‘No Reprimands’ For Blue Angels Pilots Who Flew Startlingly Close To Beachgoers

Screenshot via X.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, who was appointed to the post in April by President Donald Trump, said there would be no consequences for the Navy Blue Angels pilots who flew just feet above beachgoers on Pensacola Beach on Wednesday.

Cao posted to social media Friday, “Flight debrief complete. No reprimands. No firings. No problem. That’s the sound of Freedom! Semper fi and Hooyah.”

The incredibly low flyover was under review after it sent beachgoers scrambling and scattered beach equipment across the shoreline.

In a statement, the Blue Angels said, “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 safety of our hometown community, spectators, and our pilots is our highest priority. Team leadership is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the maneuver and conducting a thorough safety review to ensure all operations adhere to strict Navy and FAA safety standards.”

In a video shared online, Blue Angels lead pilot Captain Adam Bryan said the flyover was “over the crowd in an unsafe situation.”

“The safety of our flight demonstration, the safety of the crowd that goes out and watch it every day is the utmost of what we do. We work day in and day out and very hard from the start of our training to to ensure safety is paramount for everything, so we’ll have a heavy review of what happened…to ensure that one, we don’t put ourselves in any unsafe situations again, and two, that we learn from it.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth supported the flyover, posting to X, “The flyovers will continue until morale improves.”

In March, after Army Apache helicopter pilots staged a low-altitude flight near Kid Rock’s Nashville Home, Hegseth lifted the pilots’ suspensions and said there would be no punishment or investigation. And earlier this month, Hegseth lifted the suspension of eight Apache helicopter pilots after a low-altitude flyover in South Carolina.

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