Yak 3 crash at Wanaka

[Nige321]

There's been a court case...

The Royal New Zealand Airforce and Warbirds Over Wanaka have been ordered to pay more than $616,000 to replace a vintage aeroplane damaged when it hit a cherry picker in a crash at the airshow.

The wing of Arthur Dovey’s Yak-3M hit one of two cherry pickers parked on a grass runway during a display at the 2018 Warbirds Over Wanaka show.

Dovey was unaware the cherry pickers had been moved onto the runway and the crash extensively damaged his plane, though he was unharmed.

The plane was uninsured and Dovey's company, Dovey Aviation Consulting Ltd, went to the High Court seeking repair costs from the organisations and individuals he believed were negligent.

[N707ZS]

Opens up another can of worms for aviation events. That one thing you miss and it can costs you millions.

[meleagertoo]

Originally Posted by N707ZS

Wonder who was in charge of runway inspection, "clear to land"

A good example of why the correct phraseology (and thus mindset) is "Cleared to land", not "Clear..." though I'm not connecting that observation to this incident.

Sickening to see that, but how much worse the outcome would have been had he been a quarter of a wingspan further to the right.
The mind boggles how machinery could be left anywhere near active runways like that. I doubt the lawyers will score much on this, proceedings should be mercifully brief and clear-cut.

[arketip]

Originally Posted by meleagertoo

but how much worse the outcome would have been had he been a quarter of a wingspan further to the right.

Well, a quarter of a wingspan to the left and a much better outcome

[N707ZS]

Forgot I made that comment.

[hard_yakka]

Looks like I had a few key things wrong. Full Court Decision document

It is 159 pages long but well worth the time to read it fully.