EAA Warbird crash,What happened?
ASL Sinclair
event! However, it seems that there is at least one crash
at every airshow & this years EAA was no exception.
I was standing near the end of the runway watching the
warbirds takeoff, when one of them, I think it was a T6,
started to have audible engine misfires. The plane kept
flying straight & level, but quickly began loosing altitude
from the attained 200 feet. It did not (appropriately) try
to turn and put down behind some bushes about half a mile
beyond the 36 end of the runway. The last I saw was the plan
disappearing behind the bushes for a second, and then the tail
jumping up as it cartwheeled.
I ran as far as I could to get to it, but could not get there
Has anyone heard what happened? Was the pilot hurt? This happenned
on Sunday early afternoon. I had to leave wuickly thereafter and
to my knowledge there was no public announcement
Robert J. Granvin
The aircraft was an F8F "Gulfhawk" (civilian Bearcat).
I certainly won't speculate on cause -- the FAA likes to do that. But the
story I've received from witnesses, one an F8F pilot, is that the aircraft
made a normal take off then apparently had engine trouble. I heard the
comment "things started coming off from under the cowling." The aircraft
was high enough that the gear was up.
The pilot, perhaps realizing he wasn't going to be able to maintain
altitude made what might have been a mistake and lowered the gear and
headed for a field. Unfortunately, the heavy wet weather meant that the
ground was "gooey" and the gear stuck, flipping the plane onto the nose,
then tail, then twisted and cartwheeled.
The plane is severely damaged, though restorable (again, another comment
about how "restorable" in this case might mean "80% new parts.)
The pilot was seriously injured (concussion, etc.), but miraculously suffered
no broken bones (not even one!). He's pretty seriously bruised up.
He was lucky in many ways. First, the crash was violent enough to kill. He
had a lot of fuel on board (if not full) and a fire would have killed him.
He was trapped inside the cockpit which was upside down, The impact had
ripped off the canopy at fuselage level and deposited the fuselage square
on the ground upside down. However, the pilot had ducked before impact,
which means that he had essentially crouched down, _underneath_ fuslage
level which protected some very important body parts.
All in all a very lucky man.
(Realize that even though I trust my source for details and have never found
it to be inaccurate in any significant way, this is _still_ third hand
information).
--
\\ Robert J. Granvin User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota r...@stat.umn.edu
ASL Sinclair
to land. Considering the sticky ground, it probably made
more sense to have tried a belly flop. However, I'm sure
glad it wasn't me making those instantaneous decisions and
I really feel it for the pilot.
The whole thing really put a chill on me. 1st because of
the human and property damage. 2nd, because of the apparent
"disregard" or "non-mention" by the Airshow announcer or staff.
3rd, because these are pretty experienced pilots in an excellently
run formal setting, and yet there is an accident. I keep telling
myself and my family that flying (at least in the normal envelope)
is safe. However, it is hard to believe this and stay
unemotional while seeing a plane crash
David Stack
> I was standing near the end of the runway watching the
> warbirds takeoff, when one of them, I think it was a T6,
For pre-crash photos (and an article) about the plane see Sport Aviation
from several months ago. I don't remember the month but there is a big
orange plane on the cover, and I believe that's the same one that went down.
There was a little article in the Milwaukee Journal about it. They
didn't make a big issue about it - just as they didn't make a big issue
about crashes of motorcyclists enroute to the national Harley Fest that
Milwaukee hosted a couple months ago. (After all, Wisconsin is a tourist
state in the summer.)
--
Jordan Brown
>The whole thing really put a chill on me. ...
>3rd, because these are pretty experienced pilots in an excellently
>run formal setting, and yet there is an accident. I keep telling
>myself and my family that flying (at least in the normal envelope)
>is safe. However, it is hard to believe this and stay
>unemotional while seeing a plane crash
The unfortunate fact is that airplanes do crash, and that when you get a
lot of them together, the statistics gang up on you and things happen.
I believe that *most* Oshkosh flyins involve at least one fatality,
somewhere in the country. When you have something like 10% of the
national fleet all going to the same place, including antique
and experimental airplanes, get-there-itis, get-home-itis, showing off,
etc, and the busiest airport in the world, stuff happens. There
are something like 400 fatal accidents per year in the US. About 10%
of the US fleet shows up at OSH, so about 40 of those airplanes are
going to be involved in a fatal accident any given year. Given the
amount that the typical airplane gets flown, is it terribly surprising
that a couple of accidents happen on what is probably the longest trip
of the year for the airplane? And that's only _fatal_ accidents.
A year or two ago it was the Wheeler prototype; crashed killing 4 on
the way to OSH. There was a prop-strike incident that killed somebody
some recent year. A while back some fool tried a low-altitude snap
roll in a 152 Aerobat and didn't quite make it (but survived). Etc etc etc.
Incidentally, you were concerned about the apparent disregard of
the announcer for the accident... what did you expect him to do?
(Assuming he was aware of it at all.) The rescue people were
presumably on their way; would it help the situation to tell the
whole world that something was going on, so that a few thousand
people could all go and try to take a look? It's happened before,
they've handled it before. They probably have reasons for the
ways that they handle it.
It's kind of like places like Disneyland. Ever think about how
they treat random deaths among the customers? If you think about
it, with 25-100K people visiting every day, they probably have
several deaths per week, maybe even one or more per day.
The death rate in the US population is something like 6-10 per
thousand per year. Picking the easy numbers, 100K and 10/1000,
that gives you about 1,000 deaths per 100K population, or about
3 per day. Now, many of those are people in hospitals, old people,
etc, who wouldn't be visiting Disneyland, but many of them are
random heart attacks, and other no-warning problems - even
traffic accidents in parking lots. Do they shut down the park
when somebody keels over? Nope. Do they announce it? Nope.
They handle it with a minimum of fuss.
(I don't have any hard info on Dizzyland statistics or procedures,
but I can't believe that it conveys immunity to statistics on its
visitors.)
Ron Natalie
it was ok. The pilot had lots of bruises and a concussion but is OK.
-Ron
Skip Egdorf
The plane was a Bearcat. It had engine problems and went down in
the wet ground. The pilot was injured to some extent.
Skip Egdorf
h...@lanl.gov
N8849W
Skip Egdorf
I've just returned from EAA '93 & can't wait for next year's
event! However, it seems that there is at least one crash
at every airshow & this years EAA was no exception.
Actually, the warbird was not the only casualty. On the Tuesday
before the Show opened, at about 11 PM, a BIG level 5 thunderstorm
hit. The classic camping area was hit by a microburst that resulted
in 70 to 80 knot winds. (It is quite a thrill to have your dome
tent being flattened, rain driving horizontally, and then the
REAL wind kicks up...) fortunately there was no hail, but a very
nice Champ, just restored, was lifted straight up, and dropped
back on its tail. It broke its back and wrinkled the wings a lot.
That's what one gets for only putting the dog stakes half way into
the ground.
However, there IS a GOD!
Walking around the next morning, I discovered the other casualty.
There is this purely awful sway-backed, butt-ugly mess of an airplane
that was created by cutting up a perfectly good Tri-Pacer, splicing
new tubing all over, adding ribs to the wing, and putting a Ford V-6
in the nose. Now, I understand that this conversion has been done on
other tri-Pacers resulting in a nice bush plane. However, this
particular speciman has been at Oshkosh before and surely must take
home the prize for "Airplane only a Mother could love."
This particular craft had clearly been singled out by the wind gods,
for it's left wing tie down had pulled out, its gear had collapsed
sideways, and its wing had a few wrinkles.
The Champ was heart wrenching. The X-Tri-Pacer cheered me up
considerably.
Skip Egdorf
h...@lanl.gov
N8849W
Ron Natalie
was up for sale, was blown backwards into a couple of champs, causing
damage to both wingtips and flaps (the ailerons looked OK, though, go
figure).
I stuck my head out the tent during the storm and noticed that the
spiffy slackadjusting tie down thing that the club had given me had
failed and I was out there with a spare hank of rope trying to redo
the tiedown. Unfortunately, it was 50 feet long. Ever try to tie
a knot with 40 extra feet of rope?
-Ron
David Stack
> In article <1993Aug3.2...@peck.com> a...@world.std.com (ASL Sinclair) writes:
> I was standing near the end of the runway watching the
> warbirds takeoff, when one of them, I think it was a T6,
> started to have audible engine misfires. The plane kept
> flying straight & level, but quickly began loosing altitude
> from the attained 200 feet. It did not (appropriately) try
> to turn and put down behind some bushes about half a mile
> beyond the 36 end of the runway. The last I saw was the plan
> disappearing behind the bushes for a second, and then the tail
> jumping up as it cartwheeled.
> Skip Egdorf writes:
> The plane was a Bearcat. It had engine problems and went down in
> the wet ground. The pilot was injured to some extent.
>
I believe this is the same plane as was featured on the cover of
January 1993 Sport Aviation, a Grumman Bearcat that was restored by
Elmer Ward (who was piloting during the crash). Ward painted the ship
to emulate the "Gulfhawk 4" paint scheme used by Maj. Alford Williams Jr,
a Navy flyer, instructor, racer, and executive and promoter for Gulf, hence
the name Gulfhawk.
This particular plane used to be owned by Kaman Helicopters, who tied it
to a pad and used it to generate wind for rotor blade testing. Since Kaman
didn't need the wings, etc to generate wind a lot of pieces were missing
when Ward got the plane. In the Sport Aviation article Ward is quoted as
saying:
"The biggest change we made in the airplane was putting in a rear seat.
... There are two reasons why I wanted a rear seat: I like to take friends
for rides and, unfortunately, I am now at an age where I have to consider
the possibility that that I may eventually bust my physical. I don't
want to quit flying, so we built up the rear seat of the Bearcat so that
a full set of controls and instruments can be installed."
From what other netters have said along this thread it sounds like pieces
were coming out from under the cowling before the crash, and therefore
probably not an error on Ward's part. Ward will now have to be content
flying only his Mustang for awhile...
--
GRU...@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
>
>The whole thing really put a chill on me. 1st because of
>the human and property damage. 2nd, because of the apparent
>"disregard" or "non-mention" by the Airshow announcer or staff.
>
for the announcers to make NO MENTION whatsoever of any crash or incident
which occurs on the flightline. I have seen the creation of big black
smoking holes on the runway by an unfortunate performer while the guy on
the PA never flinches or misses a beat. He will immediately start talking
about something else or begin interviewing another pilot on the speakers
stand. No announcer will keep his job for long if he cannot do this.
I'm not sure of all the reasons, but one might be that if the accident is
broadcasted throughout the airshow grounds, those that did not see it will
crowd up to the show line to get a better view thus causing more problems
and blocking roads and exits etc. I have been amazed at how the announcer
can maintain such control without even a waiver in his voice.
Another thought is that people are there to have a good time and enjoy
aviation. They will hear about the accident soon enough anyway. Do you
want your little daughter to hear the announcer say, "Oh my god, the plane
is on fire and the pilot can't get out!" ?? Or would you rather explain
what happened later after you get back home.
In closing here is a really cold hearted thought. If you are going to crash
at an airshow, try to do it AWAY from the main runway. Even a minor incident
with no injuries which results in wreakage on or near the runway will result
in at least a 2 hour delay while FAA and police take photos, measure skid
marks, examine wreakage, etc. before ANYTHING can be moved. An accident
during the first act can cancell the entire show because of time constraints
of the low-altitude waiver.
------------------------------------------------ * ~~
Dan J. Grunloh | gru...@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu \|/ __|__ ~~
Research Specialist | University of Illinois \|/ -----(.)-----
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