A weapons school team

EMAATFA, the Escuela Militar de Aplicación Aerotáctica de la Fuerza Aérea, is the Mexican Air Force’s school of tactical application, where newly qualified pilots learn formation, night flying and air-to-ground gunnery on the T-6C+ Texan II. Its instructors formed an aerobatic team in 2013, a year after the T-6C arrived, starting with five aircraft and growing to six by 2015. The school now operates from Military Air Base No. 11 at Santa Gertrudis in Chihuahua.

The FAMEX collision and since

On 25 April 2015, during the closing display of the FAMEX aerospace fair at Santa Lucía, two of the team’s T-6Cs touched in a mirror manoeuvre. One aircraft went out of control and crashed onto a helicopter pad on the base; its crew ejected and no one was hurt, but the fair’s last day was suspended. The team flew as four aircraft afterwards and later returned to six. On 9 March 2024 it flew formation passes at the Laughlin AFB show in Texas, the first international appearance by an official Mexican Air Force team.