McD
I was there and watched the sad loss of GW in Slovakia in 99. I also watched his practice the day before where he came perilously close to doing the same thing. He needed to unload as he rolled over the top and he seemed to do the same thing twice - second time around with tragic consequencies for both him and an airport workers wife who had been smuggled onto the display line. It was one of the hardest things to watch as the whole thing appeared to be in slow motion and I remember hearing him frantically trying to pull up as you heard the jet pulling to the buffet.
Video here:
I posted these words on this very forum a few years back and the great John Farley agreed with my analysis at the time:
"So in my opinion, what might have killed GW?
1. Not unloading during the roll over the top and then burying the nose when below gate height. You could hear him pulling through the light buffet to the heavy buffet as he realised he had run out of room to pull out.
2. I seem to recall that GW was not a display pilot but was the company roll-demo pilot/test pilot. I suspect that he may not gone through the same rigorous work-up process that a display team normally does for a pre-season display authorisation (I might be wrong on this though).
3. The Flying Control Committee (or equivalent in Slovakia) should not have let him display after his pre-airshow display performance (again, in my personal opinion). But that is hindsight."
Full thread:
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...0-crash-2.html
I too have never seen an accident report to this tragedy, but having just watched the Hunter this afternoon I have had a horrible feeling of
deja vu.
LJ