ORIGINAL: Doug Cronkhite
Crazy me.. but I see something different here. I see an airplane a split-second from hitting the crowd. Ali's a great pilot, but he got lucky here. IMO, the airplane shouldn't have been put in a position to get into this situation.
A lot of you talked crap about BV with his Airshow-itis post, because of perceived motivation, but it doesn't change the fact that the message was sound.
I was sitting here trying to decide if I should say anything or not, but as I'm not the only one feeling this way here's my thoughts.
Ali is a great pilot, there is no doubt. But along with great piloting skills comes a responsibility. Whether one likes it or not, people try to mimic the people they look up to or respect. While it was a fantastic recovery, it was a recovery from a situation that was 100% avoidable. Every event I have personally been too (which is not a huge number) has always stated that low passes be made off the far side of the runway, not smack down the middle. The jet came dangerously close to coming into the flightline (I won't say into the crowd because I'm sure people will argue that at that point he was past the crowd, he may or may not have been, I don't know from the video).
Regardless, as I say, this is something that was totally avoidable. Skill definitely played a part, but luck was the biggest contributing factor here.
I have a lot of respect for Ali and his skill along with his place in the jet community. My sincere hope is that this experience keeps him (and all) jet pilots performing crowd pleasing manouvers, but doing so with a much larger margin for error.
I'm glad all ended well in this situation, but it could have been a total disaster.