News Shoreham Airshow crash.

[Notebook]

'Casualties' as airshow plane crashes into cars on A27 at Shoreham

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34027260

Awful, been to Shoreham a few times, nice grass/tarmac airfield with a real 1920's feel to it.

EDIT: 7 dead, hit cars next to the airfield. Talk about bad luck.

N.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

Aviation Safety Network page on the Crash

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=178886

It has a video of the crash

It looks to me like he entered the loop too slow and too low and then got hit by some terbulance coming off the trees. But the question is why was he doing aerobatics over an open road, there is a reason for display areas.

 

[Notebook]

I haven't been to Shoreham for an airshow, just visited a couple of times, so don't know where the crowd-line is. As its on the South coast, would have thought it would have displayed over the sea?

Some geography link here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham_Airport

 

[boogabooga]

They are calling it a "military" jet, but a Hawker Hunter?

Would that be privately owned at this point?

 

[Urwumpe]

They are calling it a "military" jet, but a Hawker Hunter?

Would that be privately owned at this point?

Doesn't matter that much, since a Hawker Hunter had been a fighter-bomber aircraft once. Even private Starfighters are still military aircraft for the media.

To me, it looks like the low speed during the loop resulted in some trouble at the top of it. But this does not explain, WHY the aircraft had been too slow at the beginning of the looping.

 

[Notebook]

Pilot survived, but critically ill:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34027260

BBC calling this the UK's worst air display crash in modern times(I think they mean number of casualties). Probably referencing it to this:
http://wn.com/1952_farnborough_airshow_dh.110_crash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Farnborough_Airshow_DH.110_crash

Hmm, the past is a different country

 

[Ripley]

Wasn't Ramstein tragedy meant to be the historical "turning point" of setting a safer distance between airshows and people watching them?
Ok, maybe the A27 was impossibile to completely close for traffic, and the casualties were not technically watchers, but still...

 

[Urwumpe]

Wasn't Ramstein tragedy meant to be the historical "turning point" of setting a safer distance between airshows and people watching them?
Ok, maybe the A27 was impossibile to completely close for traffic, and the casualties were not technically watchers, but still...

I have the impression, that the loop was not properly executed and was not in plane - thus making the plane cross the road instead of flying past it.

 

[Notebook]

Wasn't Ramstein tragedy meant to be the historical "turning point" of setting a safer distance between airshows and people watching them?
Ok, maybe the A27 was impossibile to completely close for traffic, and the casualties were not technically watchers, but still...

Ramstein was a turning point, perhaps because of the scale of the tragedy. You can't compare these events, but I can see a backlash happening in the UK regarding air displays.

N.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Did the pilot attempt to eject? If he managed to survive that crash, that is a miracle. Hopefully he survives long-term. Terrible tragedy.

 

[boogabooga]

It was a vintage aircraft.

I'm not so sure the eject options are what you would expect them to be for modern aircraft.

 

[N_Molson]

Yeah, I doubt that an aircraft that isn't in active service in an army can have an ejection seat anyway, this is something originally implemented to reduce casualties in combat situations (and allowing pilots to get more experience). Private pilots don't fly with a parachute after all.

Even if the pilot survives, he will be having deep physical and even worse psychological sequels.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

From the media reports that have seen, the pilot was pulled from the wreck on the ground. The aircraft involved is fitted with Ejector seats but they are not Zero-Zero seats.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

It was a vintage aircraft.

I'm not so sure the eject options are what you would expect them to be for modern aircraft.

The original Hawker Hunter was equipped with Martin Baker Mk 2 or Mk 3 ejection seats IIRC. Not particularly advanced, not zero-zero capable, but a viable bailout option. But it's true that I don't know if this particular Hunter was equipped with such a seat as it was civilian registered. Ejection seats have explosives that require a lot of care and maintenance, and the original pyrotechnics may not even be available anymore.

I'm curious to know what the egress requirements are for such ex-military civilian registered aircraft, especially ones flying demonstrations.

---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------

Private pilots don't fly with a parachute after all.

Some most certainly do. I have a friend who has a Pitts biplane and he has to maintain a seat style parachute for it. He keeps pestering me to get my FAA riggers license so I can pack it for him (I packed ejection seat parachutes, ACES II mostly, in the USAF).

 

[Urwumpe]

There are reports now about another air show accident in Switzerland, a mid-air collision. One pilot managed to use the parachute, the fate of the other pilot is still unknown.

 

[C3PO]

I have the impression, that the loop was not properly executed and was not in plane - thus making the plane cross the road instead of flying past it.

Watching the video it looks like the plane came out of the loop at lest 45° to the entry line.

Sky News interviewed a display pilot who explained the loop maneuver. You have an altitude 'Gate' at the top, and if you are below it you can't complete the loop. The normal procedure is to roll out on the 'closest' horizon and take it from there.

I wonder if the pilot was trying to save the plane by lining up the road. During the final pull-up the plane was almost exactly lined up but ran out of altitude. An ex-military plane should have good aileron authority at high wing loading, so a roll-out should have taken less altitude than completing the maneuver.

---------- Post added 08-24-15 at 02:48 AM ---------- Previous post was 08-23-15 at 03:04 PM ----------

This video shows a flash at 0:51 shortly before the plane reaches the top of the loop. That would explain why the plane slowed down so much just at the critical moment. If the engine had held out for another two seconds the pilot would have more options.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I'm no expert, but that flash looks to be in the camera only. I don't see anything looking like engine problems.

 

[Andy44]

I'm no expert, but that flash looks to be in the camera only. I don't see anything looking like engine problems.

Look at it closely. It looks like a vapor cloud, not a camera artifact.

 

[Lisias]

The cloud or artifact is here:

Can be none of that - perhaps some flying object that crossed the camera's view by accident.

 

[dseagrav]

perhaps some flying object that crossed the camera's view by accident.

I concur, it looks like an out-of-focus object near to the camera rather than a cloud. It's probably either a bird or piece of airborne trash.