Top officials in the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, defended the US Navy’s Blue Angels after a jet performed an unusually low-altitude flyby over a crowd at Pensacola Beach, Florida, sending sand, chairs and umbrellas flying.
Top Trump administration officials rallied to the defence of the US Navy’s Blue Angels on Thursday, backing a controversial low-altitude flyby that scattered beach gear and sent sand flying into a crowd of spectators. Even as the Navy launched a safety review into the incident, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders dismissed calls for disciplinary action, with the administration portraying the manoeuvre as a patriotic display of “freedom”.
Video footage online showed a jet from the famed flight demonstration squadron flying close above a crowd at Pensacola Beach, Florida, sending sand and beach items flying during an airshow celebrating the squadron’s 80th anniversary and the United States’ 250th anniversary.
The Blue Angels, in a statement, said the incident on Wednesday was under review. Current and former officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said video of the incident raised safety concerns but they did not want to prejudge any formal investigation without more information.
Hegseth came out in support of the pilots.
“The flyovers will continue until moral improves,” Hegseth said on X, in a play on words that appeared to reference a saying attributed by some to a British captain about beatings continuing until morale improves.
Later on Thursday, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said a “flight debrief” had been completed and there would be no reprimands.
“That’s the sound of Freedom!” he added.
Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, also defended the flyby on social media, criticizing what he called the “manufactured outrage” of the mainstream media and saying the display was “undoubtedly the highlight” of the beachgoers’ day.