Warbird Information Exchange

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23488311/

I was at Wiley Post airport and saw for myself in complete horror of this jet spirally down to the ground. Unbelievable i was at the FAA Exams Ground School on the phone with my mother when i saw the Jet go to down. Very shocked by the entire incident. Never thought i would see something like that. My heart goes out the all the families of the victims. Kinda ironically going with my last post.

Watching something like that is indeed horrifying. Kind of makes you reevaluate your own life and what is truly important to you. Sorry you had to see that.

I watched the Super Corsair crash here in Phx, I saw the P-38 Scatterbrain Kid II go down in Breckenridge, was waiting to take off with the T-6s when the Corsair/Bearcat collision occured at Oshkosh, and saw a T-28 belly in at Oshkosh. I have been lucky in that no one died in any of those.

I was the Phoenix races as well and watched and took pictures of the Super Corsair going down and was standing with Ladd Gardner at Breckenridge when the P-38 went down. He was going to ride with them on that one and I'm glad he didn't. Ober and I watched a glider do a split S and land on the numbers at 5C1......

Lynn

I've seen one fatal (Jim LeRoy), several nonfatals, and the aftermath of several of both types around the airport over the years hanging out there, including my instructor making a picture perfect no-nosegear landing in a C-172RG after the cotter pin came loose and jammed it up. He even got on the 6 o'clock news and a letter of commendation from the FAA for that one.

I don't mind seeing the non-fatal ones as usually witnessing the accident, you see some stuff that otherwise you'd miss in the postmortem on the event and I learned a few things from them, but the fatal ones are hard, especially the ones like Jim's where it looks like it may be survivable and the whole rescue effort that goes with it makes it very hard to watch.

I,m not trying to play one up but on august31,1986 I saw both a DC-9 and a Piper Archer crash and burn in front of my house in Cerritos,Ca.Both crashed within 1/4 mile of my house and I saw both hit.The sheer terror is something you can never forget.

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

That was an especially bad one. They just had one of the disaster shows with an episode on it and they did a good job of making people understand just how bad that crash was.

Small plane crashes are bad, too... Saw one with 3 19-yr olds back in '03. Same day as the second flight in my logbook. One survived.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

I remember that crash too Ryan,..............I was the Airboss at the show we had earlier that day at BAZ and got the call from the airport manager and Feds wondering if it was one of ours. Don't know the final outcome but my money was on "Airshowitis" Apparentley fatal when you get three teenagers in a plane right after the show.

Here's the NTSB report: http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20 ... 1518&key=1

I was dressed up in my WW2 uniform that day. Just before the accident had my first ever taildragger experience - in the L-4 from Burnet. That was nice. I'm pretty sure we were the last aircraft to use the runway before the accident. I remember we landed in the opposite direction (35) of the accident takeoff - because the wind favored it (it did when they took off on 17, too). There were some ultralights buzzing around - which were hard to see and avoid.
I had just gotten back to the booth we had, with Doolittle Raider books, and were packing up, when I heard an engine, and like always, I turned and watched - only to see that.

We were closer to the accident because of the ramp position and started running, an ultralight got there first (it was taking off from a taxiway in a direction towards the takeoff aircraft at the time - which has always bothered me - they were at speed when the thing happened, and did a high-speed taxi to the accident site) but I was on the scene seconds after, and I tell you what, that almost ended my flying right there. The really scary thing initially was seeing a lot of fuel literally pouring out of the broken fuel tanks as we got closer and wondering if the whole thing was about to blow! Wish I'd never seen some of the rest. At least the rear guy survived - but it sure didn't look good when we got there. He was unconscious and in really bad shape. My dad was trying to help the pilot. All the while we weren't sure if the whole thing might blow, and with all that fuel I about freaked out when a guy standing right next to me started using one of those new-fangled (then) cell phones right in the thick of all the fumes.

We went to the pilot's funeral and visited with the survivor in the hospital. He wasn't really sure what happened. From where we were it looked like a excessively steep pull-up, and a stall at the top. I still think that the pilot panicked as he stalled, saw the power lines ahead and didn't lower the nose like he should have. It would've been close, but they probably would've made it.

The really scary thing for me was that I'd just picked out an instructor, and he'd just flown the accident aircraft two days before, and I was just about to go over there for training. My instructor was a bit spooked about that and we ended up doing the training with a company at SAT, but did most of the training at BAZ. It was hard, but also good for a student pilot. I still can't land there without seeing the spot and getting REAL sober.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Ive witnessed a couple accidents involving close friends, fortunately both survived with minor injuries. The first, (and worst) was at Geneseo NY last year, on the friday arrival day evening. My groups 6 WW1 aircraft were going for a practice before dinner. On takeoff the Fokker D.VII lost power and just about went into the trees, nicked one, spun around and plowed backwards into the adjoining field. I ran for him fearing the worst but fortunately when I got there he was out and walking around without a scratch. The aircraft was heavily damaged. The second was not near as serious, our Fokker DR.I lost directional control on landing and the wheels hit a raised concrete base for a runway sign and nosed over. A few cuts and scrapes but otherwise the pilot was fine. But the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you watch these things is indescribable.

Guess I've been lucky so far. The worst I've seen in 3 1/2 years of active warbirding is the few-seconds-after-the-fact realization of the Spitfire-Hurricane collision at Lone Star airshow. I did experience that pit of the stomach feeling, though.
As a tug crew member we were on the scene and involved somewhat in recovery of the Hurri. A young cohort on the tug said that "it's so surreal. Like it's not real but so shockingly in your face real!" One second you're watching airplanes and Bang! it's mayhem.
At least I was blessed with seeing both men walk away and tried in my own fumbling way to try to say a few words of encouragement afterwards.
Doug

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

I've been lucky so far. I've seen the aftermath of several accidents (some fatal), but never seen it happen. They always happened just before I got there, or when I was behind some obsrtuction. Just lucky I guess.

RICK

I guess when you have been around aviation all your life, you are bound to see a few things. 2 fatals, 8 incidents, and just missed 3. I personally have lost 3 friends in aviation, I was witness to one. It sucks.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Does anybody know whatever became of the wreckage of Benny Howard's "Mister Mulligan"?