Blue Angels pilot removed from team, Digi Mart USA News (Pensacola, Florida): A Blue Angels pilot was removed from the Navy’s flight demonstration team for “failing to uphold” its standards, leaving the squadron with a five-jet show on Friday.
Maj. Scott Laux, a second-year member of the elite team, was identified as Blue Angel No. 6.
The Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) confirmed his removal to the Pensacola News Journal, saying the decision was announced Friday before the season finale at home in Pensacola.
“Blue Angel #6 was removed from the team for failing to uphold the standards expected of members of the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron and will not participate in the team’s remaining performance this season,” the CNATRA public affairs office wrote in a statement Friday. When reached for comment, CNATRA noted Sunday that the removal came Nov. 3.
The Navy has not said exactly what conduct prompted Laux’s dismissal. His photo and biography are no longer featured on the Blue Angels’ website team page.
Laux was absent from the squadron’s NAS Pensacola Homecoming Air Show on Friday and Saturday, where the team performed with five jets instead of its usual six.
Laux’s role was the opposing solo, which flies with lead solo #5 in the head-on crossing passes and mirror-image maneuvers that fill the gaps between the four-jet Diamond’s routines. The routines were adjusted to account for the missing jet, according to reports.
The 2026 narrator, Lt. Cmdr.
Ronny Hafeza, might replace Laux on the 2027 team, as Blue Angels officers serve three-year terms, one of them as narrator, as Laux did.
Laux, a native of Chantilly, Va., graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2012 with a degree in Chinese and earned his wings in 2015, according to his bio, which could still be accessed on the site as of Sunday morning despite no longer being listed with the rest of the team.
He flew F/A-18 Hornets with Marine Corps squadrons, deployed to Japan and aboard the USS Nimitz, and supported three operations during the 2020 carrier deployment: Resolute Support, Inherent Resolve and Octave Quartz. He later transitioned to the F-35C Lightning II and served as an instructor pilot before joining the Blue Angels in September 2024.
Before becoming Blue Angels #6, he served as the show’s narrator.
Laux has more than 1,300 flight hours and 169 aircraft carrier landings. His awards include two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and multiple unit awards.
The dismissal comes just months after a controversial low Pensacola Beach flyover in July that sent debris flying, raising public safety concerns. It is unclear whether Laux’s dismissal is in any way related to the low flyover.
Laux was not the pilot who performed the controversial maneuver, but he had previously defended the team’s low-flying displays after the incident.
