CF-18 Crash - Lethbridge Airshow

[krlang]

Wow,
We were listening to "Boozer" talk about his tour as the demo pilot after he flew at Jones Beach Memorial Day weekend, they are rotated in from active duty for a season, what a season!

Good to see he will be OK, and I also appreciate the 1000' showline a little bit more.

[The Inspector]

I strongly agree with B.G.- somebody's head @ USDA needs to roll.
It is possible that he encountered the Canadian nephew of the French bird (easy ICLO!!) that axed the Mig 29 @ Le Bourget a few years ago-

[TimAPNY]

But I'm sure the black box survived and the cause will be found.

What kind of 'black box' does a CF-18 have?

Assuming that the CF-18s had similar systems to the Navy's F/A-18 they would have had 2 options. One would be a recorder in the tail of the aircraft and the other would be closer to the pilot. It depends on which model and lot number of aircraft.

Tim

[Randy Haskin]

Interesting.

In the F-15E, only certain tail numbers off the production line came with a SFDR, not every aircraft.

[Dudley Henriques]

but incredibly brave to fight things down to the last fraction of a second...

Not so much bravery, but instinct, and probably not for the heroic reason you might think.

You might be surprised to know that the vast majority of unsuccessful ejections out of aircraft (ergo, the guy died) were because the pilot was continuing to try and 'save' the airplane and waited to long to give up on it.

So, that is something that comes natural to pilots -- to try and fly out of whatever problem is encountered. It's very *un* natural to pull the handles and face a very uncertain future for yourself. I don't think you'll find anyone who is eager to pull the handles and chuck the jet into the dirt at the first sign of trouble. Nobody wants to leave that nice, warm womb of a cockpit for the cold, windy, loud harsh environment that awaits outside the canopy and the possible physical injuries that go with it. In addition, most military pilots are the self-critiquing type, and are usually wondering what they did wrong to cause the situation whenever there is a serious emergency. Punching out of the airplane is a bit like admitting you did something wrong....

Lost my best friend in a low altitude ejection like this one, and you are exactly right about the hesitation factor. He waited that extra second trying to save it. His wingman had him on the radio as it happened. His bird, an F86A naturally had a seat not capable of the high sink he was experiencing as his J47 came apart on him throwing buckets and destroying the aircraft on the way down from his pattern altitude.
Joe Howard of the Thunderbirds went in at Transpo in 72 at Dulles from his F4 during the pull from a low pass. It was so fast he never made it out of the fireball.
Low altitude ejection is a real crap shoot for sure.
Dudley

[Cking]

Well done to the pilot and the ejection seat crew who fitted the seat. Good set of pictures too.

Rgds Cking

[CAPFlyer]

What great news that the pilot's okay. That high alpha pass is probably the most dangerous of the routines that the modern jets do becuase it leaves little speed, little altitude, and very little time to recognize and react to any problems that occur. I hope the plane was equipped with a box because knowing exactly what happened is what makes it more likely that it can be prevented in the future.

Can't tell from the shots, but both the MB seat and the MacDac ACES seats were designed for this kind of ejection (low speed, low altitude). As long as a pilot ejects while in a roll of less than 90* and the sink rate isn't deadfall, there's a good chance for survival. The Russians built an excellent ejection seat that can handle some extremely amazing circumstances and get the pilot out, but I can't remember what I read were the "minimum" ejection criteria, but I know that it's pretty darned extreme.

Seats have thankfully progressed a long way in the last 20 or so years. It's something that I wish we could retrofit onto some of the older birds to make them safer, but I know it's not as easy as just putting in new rails and installing it.

[ArtS]

Glad to hear the pilot is OK!

Regards,

Art S.

PS. Bill G. Al Gore invented the ejection seat a few years before he invented the internet however, he has been quite upset with himself as every time one is used, it emits quite a bit of CO2

[CH2Tdriver]

Watch the last (5th) video clip on the Vancouver Sun site.

Listen to the spectator's comments as the jet crashes:

"Wooooo Hoooooo!!!"

"Is that supposed to happen?"

"Is that the Tora Tora?"

[Toddb]

Looked to me like the left engine was in afterburner (the one with the nozzle full open), and the right was obviously not (with the nozzle closed).

What you can't tell just by the photos is the state of the right engine. Usually in MIL power the nozzle is fully closed, but it could also be closed because of a failure of the nozzle, of the DEEC, or of the engine itself, etc.

Agreed if you look at the 2nd last picture in Richard Allnutt's sequence of shots, the left engine is ingesting the fire via the intake and blowing it out the exhaust, however nothing from the right side.

Todd

[warbird1]

Interesting video with interview of the pilot who flew the Hornet in that crash.

Gotta love Matt Lauer when he says that the plane hit turbulence and that's what caused it to careen out of control.

Interview:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 7#38752427