How the Marine Corps Failed Squadron 242

Ultimately it was a simple mistake, no different than rear-ending someone: he shouldn’t have crossed over the KC-130, which he then can’t see, especially while on NVGs. The rest of the problems were academic enough that obviously they wouldn’t have been discovered had there not been an accident. Being out of night currency or a glitch in software tracking isn’t what killed them. Crossing over, not under, is what caused the midair. It’s pilot error.