PENSACOLA, Fla. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sticking to encouraging low-altitude military flyovers after a fighter jet buzzed a Florida beach during a show this week, raising new scrutiny after the Pentagon has dismissed a series of safety reviews of such flights.
In the latest maneuver, video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy’s demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola on Wednesday that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.
The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review.” Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.
“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.
The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.
The White House tweeted a cartoon showing people on a beach taking photos of a Blue Angels jet, with the words “Freedom” and “It’s okay to love America.”
It is at least the third time that Hegseth and others have voiced support for military aviators performing maneuvers that, while often popular with the crowds experiencing them, have drawn public scrutiny and military investigations.
In two prior cases, Hegseth’s remarks led to the end of the safety investigations. In the Florida flight, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a Trump administration political appointee, said the Navy had “no problem” with the flight and there would be no reprimands or firings. His social media post was retweeted by Hegseth.
Cao’s post said Thursday that the Blue Angels conducted a “flight debrief.” Navy officials would not say if that debrief — typically a routine occurrence after every flight — was the “thorough safety review” the Navy said it would conduct the day prior.
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