Originally Posted by
Flying_Scotsman
If the "Air Boss" is talking continuously for 20 minutes then there is something VERY wrong with the plan! The plan should be such that there is little, if any, talking needed to coordinate, and that plan should be sufficiently well briefed and "walked through" to ensure everyone understands their part in it. If the successful completion of any display item requires that amount of talking then it is a bad plan.
I am also concerned, from a UK perspective, why there were 5 people on the B17? UK rules dictate that only the minimum operating crew should be aboard during any display flying. I would expect that to be 2, or at the most 3?
The way they justify the minimum crew of 5, is to add "safety observers" to the crew. This has been an ongoing conversation for over 20 years. But hard to defend. The FAA has long contended that only essential personnel should be on board so this accident will have lots of consequences.
How it works is that this is essentially several airshows in one. The briefing determines a group of trainers, fighters, bombers and cargos. Each of these groups flies pre-determined patterns. For instance, the bombers make left hand patterns with 400ft passes down the runway centerline while the fighters fly opposite passes down the left side of the runway in left hand patterns at 200 ft. While it looks like total mayhem, those are two shows in one. Although the separation is minimal, it is there. While the show is ongoing, pilots will make mistakes or patterns need to be readjusted and this is where the air boss comes in. There are contingency plans in case something goes haywire and airplanes miss passes or screw up patterns. Then they get sent away to a predetermined visual point on the ground at a certain altitude until things are sorted out and the air boss calls them in again. In this case, obviously someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time and coordination was lost before the air boss could correct it, or the pilot was not following his directions. As crazy as it may seem, that dark colored B17 is very hard to see when it is flying slightly below the horizon. From the airshow's point of view, they well know how this came about as one of the two airplanes was out of position.