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Pilot grounded for barrel roll at Fenway

Fans at Fenway Park on Tuesday were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime performance when an F-16 flyover took an unplanned twist.

Three Falcons from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing flew in formation over the Boston stadium at the conclusion of the national anthem on opening day at the park. Then, a fourth F-16 came up from behind the formation, swooping underneath and then barrel-rolling over the top of the trio.

The crowd cheered, but the maneuver got the pilot grounded.

As the four jets approached the stadium, the fourth jet “was late to join the formation,” according to Lt. Col. Lloyd Goodrow, spokesman for the Vermont ANG. “And what he did was speed up the jet to join the formation, and then slow down the jet.”

The roll is a normal move used to slow down a jet, but is only approved for altitudes over 5,000 feet, Goodrow said. The jets were flying at 1,100 feet for the flyover.

The four pilots landed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., and immediately debriefed, Goodrow said. The pilots then flew back to their home station in Burlington, Vt., where the fourth pilot was grounded indefinitely.

The grounding was handed out “not as a punishment, but as an opportunity to sit back and reflect and re-engage in proper procedures and the ways to do what he did,” Goodrow said.

The pilot’s name and rank are not being released, but he is a “very experienced pilot,” Goodrow said.

As for the crowd, the fans loved the maneuver, and neither pilots nor pedestrians were in any danger at any time, Goodrow said.

But “I can promise you they won’t see anything like that again, no matter where we do flyovers,” Goodrow said.

See the YouTube video

DISCUSS: The opening day fly-by