It was a bad weekend for military aviation as a Navy T-34C (file photo, below) went down (in addition to an AZ F-16), with the loss of all abord. The Friday afternoon training accident has claimed the lives of two Navy pilots. Described as a "routine" training flight, the T-34C reportedly went down in mountainous terrain at approximately 1500 feet, MSL.

The flight went down Friday afternoon, in conditions that local media called "foggy." The impact site is near Steele, AL, at the base of Chandler Mountain. The flight was dispatched form Whiting Field and was reportedly a member of Training Squadron 6.

The Whiting Field Naval Air Station is located in Milton, Florida and was an early home to the navy's famed Blue Angels. It is reported by GlobalSecurity as "the busiest Naval Air Station in the world, responsible for an estimated 46 percent of the Chief of Naval Air Command's total flight time and over 10 percent of Navy and Marine Corps total flight time. Over 1,200 personnel complete their essential flight training yearly."

The T-34C Turbine Mentor is powered by a 550HP Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25 turboprop engine and started development in 1973. Full production of this aircraft started in 1975 for the US Navy and ended in 1990. With a crew of two, the T-34C has an empty weight of 2,960 lbs, and a gross weight of 4,400 lbs. The aircraft has a top seed of 280 kt IAS, a range of 600 nm, a service ceiling of 25,000 ft., and a rate of climb of 1480 fpm.

The names of the deceased aviators were not expected to be released until later today.

FMI: www.navy.mil