I was looking for information about how Maxie Anderson was killed and came across this link. Learned some interesting things. For example, Gary Powers (U2 pilot) was killed flying a news helicopter. Lots more here if you're interested.

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/famous.htm

Interesting site - sad as it is.

I get a monthly crash report. It is amazing how some crash. One guy flying through a T storm in FL. I calculated his impact at over 60,000 feet per minute. Totally amazing.

You mean like 681mph? Can't imagine that.

I used to subscribe to the NTSB reporter. I found it a really good learning tool as a reminder of "what not to do". Interesting that in 1998, 86% of all the crashes were pilot error and the pilot rated for the type of aircraft and condition.

I wish I could remember the name of the publication but alas senior time here but when I was at NASA, Edwards AFB the pilots read this one and every month they would have a column like this, darn strange reading![X(]

Was it Flying magazine? I believe they had or may still have a column called Pilot Error.

EAA's Sport Aviation has a section on mishaps too. The one on prop strikes was really sad. It is amazing how many of them still occur.

It could be. I remember one for some reason. A Navy(?) pilot in an F-8 had taken off and he immediately had a bad yaw problem, corrected and it got worse to the opposite direction and he had to punch out. crash analysis, well he had forgotten to go all the way down his check list and he didn't unfold his wings and the control tower didn't see it either. Oh ya this was from a land base. they had an artist draw a picture of what this would like as there were no pictures of the take off and is sure was funny looking. I would think that they would have some sort of safe guard to prevent this from happening but then again that's what a checklist is for!

I couldn't either. He was in a mooney, started at 14,000 feet, and the radar sweep goes around the dial in 6 seconds. He was at 8000 on the second sweep and gone on the 3rd. That is one heck of a down draft!

We had a Lear 20 series go down by El Paso a while back. A buddy I work with used to work at an aircraft salvage yard in Lancaster, Texas. He went out on recocery and it was pretty amazing he said. the aircraft went from like FL 280 to zero in less than 30 seconds. He has a Zippo lighter that he found that was in the pilots pocket. It is about as thin as 3 credit cards stacked and has the imprint of all the spare change in his pocket. You can see the eagle of the quarter and even read the date! Completely amazing! Oh yea. One other one. I used to work in Wichita, KS at the factory. And on 10 Oct 2000, a challenger 604 was going on a routine high altitude test flight to FL510. Cant remember what they were testing exactly, but I think it was CG related. Anyway, I was a lead Tech at the time and we were getting ready to do a shift change. I remember a second shift guy coming in shaking and white as a ghost. I asked him what the hell was wrong and he told me he had just seen a plane crash on his way into work. I was like, yea right, whatever. He pointed outside the hangar door and all I saw was smoke, thick black billowing smoke. I ran out side and the entire airport field was on fire. We had horrible 30-35 mph wind out of the south, and they were driving the grass fire to the north towards the hangar. Next thing I know its time to go home and traffic was a nightmare. First of all you couldn't see due to the smoke, and second was everyone was in mass chaos. News helicopters everywhere! Apparently the aircraft rotated on takeoff and had a severe yaw to one side, then a severe yaw to the other side. It swung back and the wingtip drove into the ground, flipping the aircraft. It ended up on Tyler road that is an airport perimeter road. It almost ended up on the Golf Course which is just on the other side. The pilots were still alive in the photo's, but rescuers couldn't get to them fast enough from what I hear. The first guy on the scene was the airport security guard you see in the link's photo's. I took like 30 ax blows to the windshield just to penetrate it. Two pilots died there, one was extracted and died about a month later from burns. Later they moved the aircraft to out Paint and Delivery hangar and the NTSB blocked off all the windows and put their own locks on the doors. I remember the smell of that hangar and I'll never forget it. Black Death is all I can think of to describe it!
[link]http://aviation-safety.net/database/2000/001010-0.htm[/link]

NTSB still hasn't released a final report yet. I check about once a month!

I have seen the Black box series on tv and can recommend them to any who are interested. They are very well made and very informative. Some of the crashes are amazing such as the A310 that crashes in Russia I think. This killed everyone on board and the reason was that the pilot was letting his 14 year old son fly the plane

The Navy and Marines get "The Hook", which is their version of thispublication.