OSHKOSH ACCIDENT
Charlie M.
the accident between and
F4U and an F8F bearcat happened. I was over in Camp Scholler sweating out
the heat wave when the
incident happened.
Its my understanding that 2 F8F Bearcats had been cleared for side by side
take off. Immediately
after that 2 F4U Corsairs were cleared for takeoff. One of the F4U,s piloted
by Howard Pardue
ran into one of the Bearcats shearing off a wing and doing considerable
other damage. The F4U did
end over end flips then burst into flames. Mr. Pardue received serious burns
and was transfered to
the burn center in Milwaukee. The other Bearcat that was taking off saw the
F4Us coming and veered
off the runway into the grass, thus saving himself.
I have two questions about this incident.
I know that Howard Pardue was first in very serious condition and later
upgraded to "stable".
Can anyone tell me how he's coming along????
If you were eyewitness to the accident: Had the Bearcats began their
takeoff roll and then
come to a stop for whatever reason, or hadn't they even began their takeoff
roll? If the latter
is true how could the FAA personnel have flagged the 2 F4Us for takeoff???
Thanks for any info you can provide.
Charlie Marble
Munising Michigan
ADSavarese
hit. Pardue and was not serious injured. Laird Doctor is in critical but
stable condition. The Corsair he was flying was destroyed.
And here's an excerpt from the Avweb daily Oshkosh update.
WARBIRDS COLLIDE -- NTSB PROBE TO FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIONS...
The NTSB said it will look closely at aircraft communication procedures
in use at the time of the formation takeoff that ended with the
spectacular crash of an F-4U Corsair during the Thursday airshow at
AirVenture '99. Laird "Lad" Doctor, of Dallas, Texas, the Corsair's
pilot, was seriously injured after his plane struck the right wing of a
stationary F-8 Bearcat farther down runway 18 and careened out of
control. Doctor's Corsair had just become airborne when it struck the
right wing of the Bearcat being flown by flight leader Howard Pardue, of
Breckinridge, Texas, severing part of the Corsair's left wing. The
Corsair then cartwheeled off the left side of the runway before bursting
into flames and breaking apart.
...PILOT'S CONDITION UPGRADED TO STABLE...
Doctor was thrown from the burning portion of the wreckage, which
probably helped him survive. After being rushed to a Milwaukee hospital
in critical condition, Doctor's condition was upgraded to critical but
stable by late Friday night. The aircraft involved in the collision
were part of a four-plane flight that was to begin with tandem takeoffs
of the two Bearcats and then the two Corsairs. The warbird flights at
AirVenture come under the control of an airboss from the Warbird
Association.
...AND NO MECHANICAL FAILURES FOUND
The other Corsair, flown by Jim Reed, managed to just avoid the two
Bearcats -- one piloted by Pardue and the other by Tom Wood -- but still
suffered some left wingtip damage while banking away at the last second.
A crucial part of the investigation will be Bowling's interviews with
the pilots and airboss about their procedures, which are thoroughly
discussed before each airshow. Bowling added that preliminary data
indicates that none of the four planes in the flight suffered any
mechanical failures prior to the accident.
Charlie M. wrote in message <7o9e3j$4...@btc3.up.net>...
Charlie M.
better but was
working from my feeble memory. The Newspaper Oshkosh Northwestern had
pictures
of the accident and one showed Doctors F4U flipping on its nose and flames
just starting
to shoot out. The NTSB report at
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/CHI/99A266A.htm says that
the two Bearcats had proceeded 1400 feet down from the departure end of
runway 18 when they
came to a full stop and went to idle power. This is an extremely dangerous
thing to do when
you're working with 4 tailwheel warbirds. Visibility is almost zero til the
tailwheel comes up.
I remember an accident at Oshkosh many years ago when a P51D was taking off
on runway 27 and just as
his tailwheel came up and he could see down the runway he noticed a Cessna
172 just
completing his landing rollout. The P51D pilot jerked back on the stick
and just managed
to clear the 172 but his landing gear hit the top of the 172 and also
damaged the radiator
on the bottom of the P51. I watched as the P51 struggled on the downwind
for runway
36 with glycol streaming out behind him. The engine sounded terrible but
thankfully
he made it to the runway and noone was injured in either aircraft.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ADSavarese <adsavar...@gte.net> wrote in message
news:hlYp3.106$OO4....@dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net...
Tim Savage
Charlie M. wrote in message <7oa4g5$7...@btc3.up.net>...
>Thanks for setting me straight on Howard Pardue and Laird Doctor. I knew
>better but was
>working from my feeble memory. The Newspaper Oshkosh Northwestern had
>pictures
>of the accident and one showed Doctors F4U flipping on its nose and flames
>just starting
>to shoot out. The NTSB report at
>http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/CHI/99A266A.htm says that
>the two Bearcats had proceeded 1400 feet down from the departure end of
>runway 18 when they
>came to a full stop and went to idle power. This is an extremely dangerous
>thing to do when
>you're working with 4 tailwheel warbirds. Visibility is almost zero til
the
However, this was the way it was briefed from what i understand. The
aircraft were to be spaced on the runway so they could get all four sections
of the launch off of the taxi-way. The danger came in when the Corsair
section did not cock sideways before initiating their take-off role as would
have been normal in a section take-off, to insure the flight in front was
airborne.