WASHINGTON– Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to encourage low-altitude military flyovers after a fighter jet flew over a Florida beach during a show this week, drawing fresh scrutiny after the Pentagon dismissed a series of safety reviews of such flights.

In the latest maneuver, a video that spread widely on social media shows a plane from the Navy demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a busy beach in Pensacola on Wednesday that chairs and tents flew away, sand kicked up and children put their hands over their ears.

The US Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a comprehensive security review.” Then on Thursday morning, a number of Trump administration officials praised the move.

“Flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media along with a photo showing a Blue Angels plane with the tip of a wing just feet from beachgoers’ heads.

The White House tweeted a cartoon showing people on a beach taking photos of a Blue Angels plane, with the words “Freedom” and “It’s okay to love America.”

It is at least the third time that Hegseth and others have expressed support for military aviators performing maneuvers that, while often popular with the crowds who experience them, have drawn public scrutiny and military investigations.

In two previous cases, Hegseth’s comments led to the end of security investigations. On the flight to Florida, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a political appointee of the Trump administration, said the Navy “had no problem” with the flight and that 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 did not say whether that briefing, which is typically a routine occurrence after each flight, was the “thorough safety review” the Navy said it would conduct the day before.

Low-altitude flyovers like these have been linked to a number of past accidents, said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who used to investigate accidents for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s shocking to me, as an aviation security professional, that top military leaders justify this type of reckless behavior,” he said. “In my opinion, such an arrogant attitude can only lead to accidents.”

The Florida flyover comes after video surfaced in March of two Army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home during a training run as he applauded and waved. The military initially said the helicopter crews were suspended pending a safety investigation.

Days later, Hegseth lifted the suspension and ended the investigation, saying, “No punishment. No investigation. Move on, patriots.” The singer is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.

Months later, eight South Carolina National Guard helicopter pilots were suspended following a low-altitude sweep by Army Apache helicopters over beachgoers as part of a Fourth of July event honoring service members.

Less than a week after the event, Hegseth again said he was intervening, writing on social media: “We will fix this.” The next day, Parnell posted that “effective immediately, the suspension of all pilots involved in South Carolina has been lifted.” He added to his social media post: “Carry on, Patriots.”

Asked if Thursday’s posts, which use the same phrase as the previous two cases, meant Hegseth’s office was pausing another security investigation, Pentagon spokesman Jacob Bliss said he had “nothing further to provide at this time.”

Guzzetti said top military leaders are making excuses for dangerous and unprofessional behavior by military aviators.

“That sends a powerful signal that this type of deviant behavior is acceptable and, in fact, desired,” he said. “And that’s dangerous. It’s the antithesis of a good safety culture.”

Former Transportation Department inspector general Mary Schiavo said these flyovers probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions on low-level flying over people that the FAA imposes on civilian flights. But that doesn’t mean they’re a good idea, particularly the risky maneuvers the Blue Angels pilots perform.

“They’re air show teams, and what they do is extremely dangerous and amazing and wonderful, but dangerous,” said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work at air shows years ago. “So it’s not really something that should be done on people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close I was until everyone around me said, ‘That was great,’” he said. “It wasn’t normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everyone I was with.”

A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal planning, said the Blue Angels’ upcoming show on Saturday will go ahead as planned.

The Army was harshly criticized by the NTSB during its investigation of last year’s mid-air collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane near Washington for failing to identify and address hazards that contributed to the crash that killed 67 people.

The NTSB said it found that “the Army aviation safety system failed to consistently detect, interpret, and act on latent hazard signals, resulting in a degradation of safety assurance, organizational learning, and safety culture.”

Even basic flyovers, like the one Hegseth advocates, have been known to become deadly.

In April 2025, a Japanese woman died after the propeller of an Air Force HH-60W helicopter knocked her onto a concrete walkway, causing serious head injuries.

A subsequent Air Force investigation noted that key factors that led to the mishap included “allowing a deviation from safe distances for spectators” as defined by the Air Force and “an operational mindset that fosters false confidence in safety.”

In 2011, Cmdr. Dave Koss, then head of the Blue Angels, voluntarily resigned days after a performance at a regional air show where he performed a low-altitude maneuver that was called “unacceptable” in a Navy statement at the time. As a result, the Blue Angels had to cancel several of their air shows that year.

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP writer Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.