Scotch75034

The chunk seen in the BBC video after the midair is the missing chunk of the right wing panel of the Skyraider. truly a tragic event but thankfully no one was hurt.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

planes do sometimes, when no-one is at the controls.


Not sure who is at fault here, it appears the Mustang throttled back and stopped climbing long before it could have. Not blaming him either, maybe just some serious mis-communication. The aircraft involved have drastically different flight characteristics: always making things more difficult when performing formation flybys.

It also appears that the Mustang jettisoned the canopy almost immediately, maybe as a precaution while he assessed, made determinations and preperations?

mmorg1

My Feedback: (11)

I would assume after the contact, and the wild direction change first thing was get out, then the airplane began flying again, pilot tried to fly it and realized he didnt have enough control and got out. Either way call the insurance company!

77chickenhawk

i would like to know what the mustang pilot said after the fact.. it still looks like it could have been flown home.....

S E Repton

I am quite sure that if it could have been flown then he would have tried his best too.

I am also sure that if I were just a couple of hundred feet high I wouldn't hang about to find out. Mustangs can be rebuilt or used to rebuild other aircraft, people can't!

We are all just arm chair investigators here so we need to wait to see what the pilots and the AAIB say. There is also the issue of the pilot not knowing what the consequences would be if he tried to land it and it then crashed into houses or worse still, the crowd.

I think the pilot did the right thing from what we can see on the video.

Sheridan

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

I was thinking that too, after all: it SEEMED to be in control. Maybe the damage to the underside severed and/ or severly damaged elevator cables/ controls, to the point that they were either in-operable or limited to the extent that he felt he didn't have sufficient elevator.

Did anyone notice: the Skyraider did a complete roll (to the right), then presicely leveled the wings (what remained of them) off.

squeakalong

My Feedback: (8)

Dramatic photos here and it shows just what can happen in an instant during an airshow. Both of these pilots were professional or they wouldn't have been in those planes and both used their experience to handle the situation well. No one on the ground got injured or killed as a result of this collision and the pilots lived to fly another day. Glad the story turned out reasonably well in spite of the lose of a vintage warbird.

Soft landings,

Joe

Dick T.

My Feedback: (243)

Watching the half speed video closely it appears the Mustang is pitching up/down (almost imperceptable) so control response was either non-existent or very limited. Pilot made the right choice (or had no choice) to get out.

Glad all worked out for both pilots.

uncljoe

My Feedback: (8)

Don't know how many hours you have as pilot in command,But when one's ***** is in the seat you tend to react to the situation ... He IMHO did the right thing, GET OUT,and let the A/C impact in the open field .
Semper Fi
Joe

wayne d

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Here is the best link I can find.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-airshow.html

t_burley

My Feedback: (59)

Amen there Joe. you can see after first impact, he was getting ready when
the canopy punched off, knew he wasnt going to land it anywhere.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

"Some times your best just ain't good enough".
Seriously: the comments are obviously by people who witnessed it, BUT, are 'aerodynamically challenged'. That is to say: many times, the people who witness as aircraft crash and/ or incident, do not know much about aviation, what 'makes planes fly', and what they actually saw.

"The three planes came together to form a triangle" this was obviously not the intent of the pilots when 'peeling off'

"The other aircraft dived away from the airfield" In this case, I believe he is reffering to the Skyraider. The Skyraider did an immidiate roll, but did not "dive", intentionally or not.

I could go on, but the point is: this is obviously (to me anyway) not a good account of what actually occurred.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Hard to really tell if he throttles back,, the other Mustang doesn't gain on him, waits for the skyraider and seams to get to the right wing in a safe spot. All three planes pull and bank, not timed well at all though, it looks like it was a planned maneuver.. It appears to me the Skyraider just pulled up late, long and too steep and tries to correct to get back on the left wing of the Mustang,, then the oops.. We can speculate all day long and give as much benefit of the doubt we want, I do agree the larger skyraider's lack of mobility may have contributed to the problem. But IMHO there's no excuse ever for flying into the lead plane. If he missed his mark to turn he should have aborted.

Great work by the Mustang pilot to get that canopy off instantly,, just in case,, truely amazing actually

deatonbt

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